Photo  N.  Y.  Herald 


WARREN    GAMALIEL   HARDING 


THE  MIRRORS  OF 
WASHINGTON 


ANONYMOUS 


With  Fourteen  Cartoons  by 
GESARE 

and  Fourteen  Portraits 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

Ube    ifcnfcfeerbocber    pi-ess 

1921 


Copyright.  1921 

by 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 


Made  in  the  United  States  of  America 


M 


CONTENTS 

WITH  BIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 
HARDING,  Warren  G., 

PACK 

President  of  the  United  States;  b.  Corsica,  Morrow 
Co.,  O.,  Nov.  2,  1865;  Educ.  student  of  Ohio 
Central  Coll.  (now  defunct),  Iberia,  1879-82; 
engaged  in  newspaper  business  at  Marion,  O., 
since  1884;  pres.  Harding  Pub.  Co.,  pubs.  Star 
(daily);  mem.  Ohio  Senate,  1900-4;  It. -gov.  of 
Ohio,  1904-6;  Rep.  nominee  for  gov.  of  Ohio, 
1910  (defeated);  mem.  U.  S.  Senate,  from  Ohio, 
1915-21;  Baptist;  President  of  the  United  States, 
1921  .  .  3 

WILSON,  Woodrow, 

Twenty-eighth  President  of  the  United  States;  b. 
Staunton,  Va.,  Dec.  28,  1856;  Educ.  Davidson 
Coll.,  N.  C.,  1874-5;  A.B.,  Princeton,  1879,  A.M., 
1882;  grad.  in  law,  U.  of  Va.,  1881;  post-grad. 
work  at  Johns  Hopkins,  1883-5,  Ph.D.,  1886; 
(LL.D.,  Wake  Forest,  1887,  Tulane,  1898,  Johns 
Hopkins,  1902,  Rutgers,  1902,  U.  of  Pa.,  1903, 
Brown,  1903;  Harvard,  1907,  Williams,  1908, 
Dartmouth,  1909;  Litt.D.,  Yale,  1901);  pres.  Aug. 
i,  1902-Oct.  20,  1910,  Princeton  U.;  gov.  of  N.  J., 
Jan.  17,  I9ii-Mar.  i,  1913  (resigned) ;  nominated 

iii 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

for  President  in  Dem.  Nat.  Conv.  Baltimore,  1912, 
and  elected  Nov.  4,  1912,  for  term,  Mar.  4,  1913- 
Mar.  4,  1917;  renominated  for  President  in  Dem. 
Nat.  Conv.,  St.  Louis,  1916,  and  reflected,  Nov. 
7,  1916;  for  term  Mar.  4,  i9i7~Mar.  4,  1921;  Left 
for  France  on  the  troopship  George  Washington, 
Dec.  4, 1918,  at  the  head  of  Am.  Commn.  to  Negoti 
ate  Peace;  returned  to  U.  S.,  arriving  in  Boston, 
Feb.  24, 1919;  left  New  York  on  2d  trip  to  Europe, 
Mar.  5;  arrived  in  Paris,  Mar.  14;  signed  Peace 
Treaty,  June  28,  1919  .....  25 

HARVEY,  George  (Brinton  McClellan), 

Editor;  b.  Peacham,  Vt.,  Feb.  16/1864;  Educ. 
Peacham  Academy;  (LL.D.,  University  of  Ne 
vada,  University  of  Vermont,  Middlebury  Coll. 
and  Erskine  Coll.).  Consecutively  reporter 
Springfield  Republican,  Chicago  News,  and  New 
York  World,  1882-6;  ins.  commr.  of  N.  J.,  1890-1 ; 
mng.  editor  New  York  World,  1891-93;  con 
structor  and  pres.  various  electric  railroads,  1894- 
8;  purchased,  1899,  and  since  editor  North  Ameri 
can  Review,  Pres.  Harper  &  Bros.,  1900-15;  North 
Am.  Review  Pub.  Co.,  1899-  ;  editor  and  pub. 
Harvey's  Weekly;  dir.  Audit  Co.  of  New  York; 
Col.  and  a.-d.-c.  on  staffs  of  Govs.  Green  and 
Abbett,  of  N.  J.,  1885-92 ;  hon.  col.  and  a.-d.-c.  on 
staffs  of  Govs.  Heyward  and  Ansel,  of  S.  C. ;  U.  S. 
Ambassador  to  Court  of  Saint  James  .  .  49 

HUGHES,  Charles  Evans, 

Secretary  of  State;  b.  at  Glens  Falls,  N.  Y.,  Apr.  n, 
1862;  Educ.  Colgate  U.,  1876-8;  A.B.,  Brown  U., 

iv 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

1881,  A.M.,  1884;  LL.B.,  Columbia,  1884;  (LL.D., 
Brown,  1906,  Columbia,  Knox,  and  Lafayette,  1907, 
Union,  Colgate,  1908,  George  Washington,  1909, 
Williams  College,  Harvard,  and  Univ.  of  Penn 
sylvania,  1910,  Yale  Univ.,  1915);  admitted  to 
N.  Y.  bar,  1884;  prize  fellowship,  Columbia  Law 
Sch.,  1884-7;  nominated  for  office  of  mayor  of 
New  York  by  Rep.  Conv.,  1905,  but  declined;  gov. 
of  N.  Y.  2  terms,  Jan.  I,  i9O7~Dec.  31,  1908,  Jan. 
I,  1909-Dec.  31,  1910;  resigned,  Oct.  6,  1910; 
apptd.,  May  2,  1910,  and  Oct.  10,  1910,  became 
asso.  justice  Supreme  Court  of  U.  S.;  nominated 
for  President  of  U.  S.  in  Rep.  Nat.  Conv.,  Chicago, 
June  10,  1916,  and  resigned  from  Supreme  Court 
same  day;  {Secretary  ot  State,  1921  .  .  67 

HOUSE,  Edward  Mandell, 

B.  Houston,  Tex.,  July  26,  1858;  Educ.  Hopkins 
Grammar  Sch.,  New  Haven,  Conn.,  1877;  Cornell 
U.,  1881;  active  in  Dem.  councils,  state  and  na 
tional,  but  never  a  candidate  for  office.  Personal 
representative  of  President  Wilson  to  the  Euro 
pean  governments  in  191 4,  1915,  and  1916;  apptd. 
by  the  President,  Sept.,  1917,  to  gather  and  or 
ganize  data  necessary  at  the  eventual  peace  con 
ference;  commd.  as  the  special  rep.  of  Govt.  of 
U.  S.  at  the  Inter- Allied  Conference  of  Premiers 
and  Foreign  Ministers,  held  in  Paris,  Nov.  29, 
1917,  to  effect  a  more  complete  coordination  of 
the  activities  of  the  Entente  cobelligerents  for 
the  prosecution  of  the  war;  designated  by  the 
President  to  represent  the  U.  S.  in  the  Supreme 
War  Council  at  Versailles,  Dec.  i,  1917;  Oct.  17, 
1918;  designated  by  the  President  to  act  for  the 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

U.  S.  in  the  negotiation  of  the  Armistice  with  the 
Central  Powers;  mem.  Am.  Commn.  to  Negotiate 
Peace,  1918-19 89 

HOOVER,  Herbert  Clark, 

Secretary  of  Commerce ;  Engineer ;  b.  West  Branch,  la., 
Aug.  10, 1874;  Educ.  B.A.  (in  mining  engring.),  Le- 
land  Stanford,  Jr.,  U.,  1895;  (LL.D.,  Brown  U.,  U. 
of  Pa.,  Harvard,  Princeton,  Yale,  Oberlin,  U.  of  Ala., 
Liege,  Brussels;  D.C.L.,  Oxford) ;  Asst.  Ark.  Geol. 
Survey,  1893,  U.  S.  Geol.  Survey,  Sierra  Nevada 
Mountains,  1 895 ;  in  W.  Australia  as  chief  of  mining 
staff  of  Bewick,  Moieing  &  Co.  and  mgr.  Han- 
nan's  Brown  Hill  Mine,  1897;  chief  engr.  Chinese 
Imperial  Bur.  of  Mines,  1899,  doing  extensive 
exploration  in  interior  of  China.  Too1,  part  in 
defense  of  Tientsin  during  Boxer  disturbances; 
Chmn.  Am.  Relief  Com.  London,  1914-15, 
Commn.  for  Relief  in  Belgium,  1915-18;  chmn. 
food  com.  Council  of  Nat.  Defense,  Apr. -Aug. 
1917;  apptd.  U.  S.  food  administrator  by  President 
Wilson,  Aug.  10,  1917,  resigned  June,  1919. 
Secretary  of  Commerce,  1921  ....  107 

LODGE,  Henry  Cabot, 

Senator;  b.  Boston,  May  12,  1850;  Educ.  A.B.,  Har 
vard,  1871,  LL.B.,  1875,  Ph.D.  (history),  1876; 
(LL.D.,  Williams,  1893,  Yale,  1902,  Clark  U., 
1902,  Harvard,  1904,  Amherst,  1912,  also  Union 
Col.,  Princeton  U.,  and  Dartmouth  Coll.,  and 
Brown,  1918) ;  Admitted  to  bar,  1876;  editor  North 
American  Review,  1873-6,  International  Review, 
1879-81 ;  mem.  Mass.  Ho.  of  Rep.,  1880,  81 ;  mem. 

vi 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

50th  to  53d  Congresses  (1887-93),  6th  Mass. 
Dist.;  U.  S.  senator,  since  1893;  mem.  Alaskan 
Boundary  Tribunal,  1903;  mem.  U.  S.  Immi 
gration  Commn.,  1907  .  •  .  .  .129 

BARUCH,  Bernard  Mannes, 

Educ.  A.B.,  Coll.  City  of  New  York,  1889;  mem.  of 
New  York  Stock  Exchange  many  yrs.;  apptd., 
1916,  by  Pres.  Wilson,  mem.  Advisory  Commn.  of 
Council  Nat.  Defense;  was  made  chmn.  Com.  on 
Raw  Materials,  Minerals  and  Metals,  also  cornmr. 
in  charge  of  purchasing  for  the  War  Industries 
Bd.,  and  mem.  commn.  in  charge  of  all  purchases 
for  the  Allies;  apptd.  chmn.  War  Industries  Bd., 
Mar.  5,  1918;  resigned  Jan.  I,  1919;  connected 
with  Am.  Commn.  to  Negotiate  Peace  as  member 
of  the  drafting  com.  of  the  Economic  Sect.;  -mem. 
Supreme  Economic  Council  and  chmn.  of  its  raw 
materials  div.;  Am.  del.  on  economics  and  repa 
ration  clauses;  economic  adviser  for  the  Am.  Peace 
Commn.;  mem.  President's  Conf.  for  Capital 
and  Labor,  Oct.  1919  •*  .  .  .  .  145 

ROOT,  Elihu, 

Ex-Secretary  of  State;  senator;  b.  Clinton,  N.  Y., 
Feb.  15,  1845;  Educ.  A.B.,  Hamilton  Coll.,  1864, 
A.M.,  1867;  taught  at  Rome  Acad.,  1865;  LL.B., 
New  York  U.,  1867;  (LL.D.,  Hamilton,  1894,  Yale, 
1900,  Columbia,  1904,  New  York  U.,  1904,  Wil 
liams,  1905,  Princeton,  1906,  U.  of  Buenos  Aires, 
1906,  Harvard,  1907,  Wesleyan,  1909,  McHill, 
1913,  Union  U.,  1914,  U.  of  State  of  N.  Y.,  1915,  U. 
of  Toronto,  1918,  and  Colgate  U.,  1919;  Dr.  Polit. 
Science,  U.  of  Leyden,  1913;  D.C.L.,  Oxford,  1913; 

vii 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

mem.  Faculty  of  Political  and  Administrative 
Sciences,  University  of  San  Marcos,  Lima,  1906); 
Admitted  to  bar,  1867;  U.  S.  dist.  atty.  Southern 
Dist.  of  N.  Y.,  1883-5;  Sec.  of  War  in  cabinet  of 
President  McKinley,  Aug.  I,  i899~Feb.  i,  1904; 
Sec.  of  State  in  cabinet  of  President  Roosevelt, 
July  I,  1905-Jan.  27,  1909;  U.  S.  senator  from 
N.  Y.,  1909-15;  mem.  Alaskan  Boundary  Tri 
bunal,  1903;  counsel  for  U.  S.  in  N.  Atlantic  Fish 
eries  Arbitration,  1910;  mem.  Permanent  Court  of 
Arbitration  at  The  Hague,  1910-  ;  pres.  Carnegie 
Endowment  for  Internat.  Peace,  1910;  president 
Hague  Tribunal  of  Arbitration  between  Great 
Britain,  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  concerning 
church  property,  1913;  ambassador  extraordinary 
at  the  head  of  special  diplomatic  mission  to  Russia, 
during  revolution,  1917.  Awarded  Nobel  Peace 
Prize  for  1912  .......  163 

JOHNSON,  Hiram  Warren, 

Senator;  b.  Sacramento,  Cal.,  Sept.  2,  1866;  Educ. 
U.  of  Cal.,  leaving  in  jr.  yr. ;  began  as  short-hand 
reporter;  studied  law  in  father's  office;  admitted 
to  Cal.  bar,  1888;  mem.  staff  of  pros,  attys.  in 
boodling  cases,  involving  leading  city  officials  and 
almost  all  pub.  utility  corpns.  in  San  Francisco, 
1906-7;  was  selected  to  take  the  place  of  Francis 
J.  Heney,  after  latter  was  shot  down  in  court  while 
prosecuting  Abe  Ruef,  for  bribery,  1908,  and 
secured  conviction  of  Ruef;  gov.  of  Cal.,  1911-15; 
reflected  for  term,  1915-19  (resigned  Mar.  15, 
1917);  a  founder  of  Progressive  Party,  1912,  and 
nominee  f or  V.-P.  of  U.  S.  on  Prog,  ticket  same  yr. ; 
U.  S.  senator  from  Cal.  for  term  1917-23  .  »  183 

viii 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

KNOX,  Philander  Chase, 

Ex-Secretary  of  State;  b.  Brownsville,  Pa.,  May  6, 
1853;  Educ.  A.B.,  Mt.  Union  Coll.,  Ohio,  1872; 
read  law  in  office  of  H.  B.  Swope,  Pittsburgh; 
(LL.D.,  U.  of  Pa.,  1905,  Yale,  1007,  Villanova, 
1909);  Admitted  to  bar,  1875;  asst.  U.  S.  dist. 
atty.,  Western  Dist.  of  Pa.,  1876-7;  Atty.-Gen.  in 
cabinets  of  Presidents  McKinley  and  Roosevelt, 
Apr.  9,  igoi-June  30,  1904;  apptd.  U.  S.  senator 
by  Governor  Pennypacker,  June  10,  1904,  for  un- 
expired  term  of  Matthew  Stanley  Quay,  deceased; 
elected  U.S.  senator,  Jan.,  1905,  for  term,  1905-1 1 ; 
Sec.  of  State  in  cabinet  of  President  Taft,  Mar., 
1909-13;  Reflected  U.  S.  senator,  for  term 
1917-23 197 

LANSING,  Robert, 

Ex-Secretary  of  State;  b.  at  Watertown,  N.  Y., 
Oct.  17,  1864;  Educ.  A.B.,  Amherst,  1886;  (LL.D., 
Amherst,  1915,  Colgate,  1915,  Princeton,  1917, 
Columbia,  1918,  Union,  1918,  U.  State  of  N.  Y., 
1919);  Admitted  to  bar,  1889;  Asso.  counsel  for 
U.  S.  in  Behring  Sea  Arbitration,  1892-3;  counsel 
for  Behring  Sea  Claims  Commn.,  1896-7;  solicitor 
and  counsel  for  the  United  States  under  the  Alas 
kan  Boundary  Tribunal,  1903;  counsel,  North 
Atlantic  Coast  Fisheries  Arbitration  at  The  Hague, 
1909-10;  agent  of  United  States,  Am.  and  British 
Claims  Arbitration,  1912-14;  counselor  for  Dept. 
of  State,  Mar.  20,  1914- June  23,  1915;  Secretary 
of  State  in  Cabinet  of  Pres.  Wilson,  June  23,  1915- 


Feb.,   1920;  mem.  Am.    Commn.    to    Negotiate 
Peace,  Paris,  1918-19        .         *         .         .          .     213 

IX 


CONTENTS 

PACK 

PENROSE,  Boies, 

Senator;  b.  Phila.,  Nov.  I,  1860;  Educ.  A.B.,  Har 
vard,  1881;  Admitted  to  the  bar,  1883;  mem. 
Pa.  Ho.  of  Rep.,  1884-6,  Senate,  1887-97  (pres. 
pro  tern.,  1889,  1891) ;  U.  S.  senator,  4  terms,  1897- 
1921;  Chmn.  Rep.  State  Com.,  1903-5;  mem. 
Rep.  Nat.  Com.  since  1904  .  .  .  .  229 

BORAH,  William  Edgar, 

Senator;  b.  at  Fail-field,  111.,  June  29,  1865;  Educ. 
Southern  111.  Acad.,  Enfield,  and  U.  of  Kan.; 
Admitted  to  bar,  1889;  U.  S.  senator  from  Idaho, 
Jan.  14, 1903;  elected  U.  S.  senator  for  terms  1907- 
13,  1913-19.  1919-25  •  •  •  •  -245 


ILLUSTRATIONS 
WARREN  GAMALIEL  HARDING         .         ..         Frontispiece 

PACK 

WOODROW  WILSON  24 

GEORGE  HARVEY 4$ 

CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES 66 

EDWARD  MANDELL  HOUSE 88 

HERBERT  CLARK  HOOVER 106 

HENRY  CABOT  LODGE  .  .'       v        •         .128 
BERNARD  MANNES  BARUCH  .         .        .        •        «     *44 

ELIHU  ROOT         .  •         •         •         •         .162 

HIRAM  WARREN  JOHNSON  ,        .                          .182 

PHILANDER  CHASE  KNOX  .         .        .        .         .196 

ROBERT  LANSING          .  .         •         •         •         .212 

BOIES  PENROSE    .         .  •         *         •         •     228 

WILLIAM  EDGAR  BORAH 244 


THE  MIRRORS  OF 
WASHINGTON 


WARREN  GAMALIEL  HARDING 

EVERY  time  we  elect  a  new  President  we  learn 
what  a  various  creature  is  the  Typical  American. 

When  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  in  the  White  House 
the  Typical  American  was  gay,  robustious,  full  of 
the  joy  of  living,  an  expansive  spirit  from  the 
frontier,  a  picaresque  twentieth  century  middle 
class  Cavalier.  He  hit  the  line  hard  and  did  not 
flinch.  And  his  laugh  shook  the  skies. 

Came  Wilson.  And  the  Typical  American  was 
troubled  about  his  soul.  Rooted  firmly  in  the 
church-going  past,  he  carried  the  banner  of  the 
Lord,  Democracy,  idealistic,  bent  on  perfecting 
that  old  incorrigible  Man,  he  cuts  off  the  right  hand 
that  offends  him  and  votes  for  prohibition  and 
woman  suffrage,  a  Round  Head  in  a  Ford. 

Eight  years  and  we  have  the  perfectly  typical 
American,  Warren  Gamaliel  Harding  of  the  modern 
type,  the  Square  Head,  typical  of  that  America 
whose  artistic  taste  is  the  movies,  who  reads  and 

3 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

finds  mental  satisfaction  in  the  vague  inanities  of 
the  small  town  newspaper,  who  has  faith  in  Amer 
ica,  who  is  for  liberty,  virtue,  happiness,  prosperity, 
law  and  order  and  all  the  standard  generalities  and 
holds  them  a  perfect  creed ;  who  distrusts  anything 
new  except  mechanical  inventions,  the  standard 
ized  product  of  the  syndicate  which  supplies  his 
nursing  bottle,  his  school  books,  his  information, 
his  humor  in  a  strip,  his  art  on  a  screen,  with  a 
quantity  production  mind,  cautious,  uniformly 
hating  divergence  from  uniformity,  jailing  it  in 
troublous  times,  prosperous,  who  has  his  car  and 
his  bank  account  and  can  sell  a  bill  of  goods  as  well 
as  the  best  of  them. 

People  who  insist  upon  having  their  politics 
logical  demand  to  know  the  why  of  Harding.  Why 
was  a  man  of  so  undistinguished  a  record  as  he 
first  chosen  as  a  candidate  for  President  and  then 
elected  President? 

As  a  legislator  he  had  left  no  mark  on  legislation. 
If  he  had  retired  from  Congress  at  the  end  of  his 
term  his  name  would  have  existed  only  in  the  old 
Congressional  directories,  like  that  of  a  thousand 
others.  As  a  public  speaker  he  had  said  nothing 
that  anybody  could  remember.  He  had  passed 
through  a  Great  War  and  left  no  mark  on  it.  He 

4 


WARREN  GAMALIEL  HARDING 

had  shared  in  a  fierce  debate  upon  the  peace  that 
followed  the  war  but  though  you  can  recall  small 
persons  like  McCumber  and  Kellogg  and  Moses 
and  McCormick  in  that  discussion  you  do  not 
recall  Harding.  To  be  sure  he  made  a  speech  in 
that  debate  which  he  himself  says  was  a  great 
speech  but  no  newspaper  thought  fit  to  publish  it 
because  of  its  quality,  or  felt  impelled  to  publish 
it  in  spite  of  its  quality  because  it  had  been  made 
by  Harding. 

He  neither  compelled  attention  by  what  he  said 
nor  by  his  personality.  Why,  then,  without  fire 
works,  without  distinction  of  any  sort,  without 
catching  the  public  eye,  or  especially  deserving  to 
catch  it,  was  Warren  Harding  elected  Piesident  of 
the  United  States? 

One  plausible  reason  why  he  was  nominated  was 
that  given  by  Senator  Brandegee  at  Chicago, 
where  he  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  nomina 
tion.  ' '  There  ain't  any  first  raters  this  year.  This 
ain't  any  1880  or  any  1904.  We  haven't  any  John 
Shermans  or  Theodore  Roosevelts.  We've  got 
a  lot  of  second  raters  and  Warren  Harding  is  the 
best  of  the  second  raters." 

Once  nominated  as  a  Republican  his  election  of 
course  inevitably  followed.  But  to  accept  Mr. 

3 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

Brandegee's  plea  in  avoidance  is  to  agree  to  the 
eternal  poverty  of  American  political  life,  for  most 
of  our  presidents  have  been  precisely  like  Warren 
G.  Harding,  first-class  second  raters. 

Mrs.  Harding,  a  woman  of  sound  sense  and 
much  energy  had  an  excellent  instructive  answer 
to  the ' '  why. ' '  The  pictures  of  the  house  in  Marion, 
the  celebrated  front  porch,  herself  and  her  husband 
were  taken  to  be  exhibited  by  cinema  all  over  the 
land.  She  said,  "I  want  the  people  to  see  these 
pictures  so  that  they  will  know  we  are  just  folks 
like  themselves/' 

Warren  Harding  is  "just  folks."  A  witty 
woman  said  of  him,  alluding  to  the  small  town 
novel  which  was  popular  at  the  time  of  his  inau 
guration,  "Main  Street  has  arrived  in  the  White 
House." 

The  Average  Man  has  risen  up  and  by  seven 
million  majority  elected  an  Average  Man  Presi 
dent.  His  defects  were  his  virtues.  He  was  chosen 
rather  for  what  he  wasn't  than  for  what  he  was, — 
the  inconspicuousness  of  his  achievements.  The 
"just  folks"  level  of  his  mind,  his  small  town  man's 
caution,  his  sense  of  the  security  of  the  past,  his 
average  hopes  and  fears  and  practicality,  his  stand 
ardized  Americanism  which  would  enable  a  people 

6 


WARREN  GAMALIEL  HARDING 

who  wanted  for  a  season  to  do  so  to  take  themselves 
politically  for  granted. 

The  country  was  tired  of  the  high  thinking  and 
rather  plain  spiritual  living  of  Woodrow  Wilson. 
It  desired  the  man  in  the  White  House  to  cause  it 
no  more  moral  overstrain  than  does  the  man  you 
meet  in  the  Pullman  smoking  compartment  or  the 
man  who  writes  the  captions  for  the  movies  who 
employs  a  sort  of  Inaugural  style,  freed  from  the 
inhibitions  of  statesmanship.  It  was  in  a  mood 
similar  to  that  of  Mr.  Harding  himself  when  after 
his  election  he  took  Senators  Freylinghuysen,  Hale, 
and  Elkins  with  him  on  his  trip  to  Texas.  Senator 
Knox  observing  his  choice  is  reported  to  have  said, 
"I  think  he  is  taking  those  three  along  because  he 
wanted  complete  mental  relaxation."  All  his  life 
Mr.  Harding  has  shown  a  predilection  for  com 
panions  who  give  him  complete  mental  relaxation, 
though  duty  compels  him  to  associate  with  the 
Hughes  and  the  Hoovers.  The  conflict  between 
duty  and  complete  mental  relaxation  establishes  a 
strong  bond  of  sympathy  between  him  and  the 
average  American. 

The  "why"  of  Harding  is  the  democratic  passion 
for  equality.  We  are  standardized,  turned  out  like 
Fords  by  the  hundred  million,  and  we  cannot  en- 

7 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

dure  for  long  anyone  who  is  not  standardized. 
Such  an  one  casts  reflections  upon  us;  why  should 
we  by  our  votes  unnecessarily  asperse  ourselves? 
Occasionally  we  may  indulge  nationally,  as  men  do 
individually,  in  the  romantic  belief  that  we  are 
somebody  else,  that  we  are  like  Roosevelt  or  Wil 
son — and  they  become  typical  of  what  we  would  be 
— but  always  we  come  back  to  the  knowledge  that 
we  are  nationally  like  Harding,  who  is  typical  of 
what  we  are.  "Just  folks"  Kuppenheimered, 
movieized,  associated  pressed  folks. 

Men  debate  whether  or  not  Mr.  Wilson  was  a 
great  man  and  they  will  keep  on  doing  so  until  the 
last  of  those  passes  away  whose  judgment  of  him 
is  clouded  by  the  sense  of  his  personality.  But 
men  will  never  debate  about  the  gieatness  of  Mr 
Harding,  not  even  Mr.  Harding  himself.  He  is 
modest.  He  has  only  two  vanities,  his  vanity 
about  his  personal  appearance  and  his  vanity  about 
his  literary  style. 

The  inhibitions  of  a  presidential  candidate, 
bound  to  speak  and  say  nothing,  irked  him. 

"Of  course  I  could  make  better  speeches  than 
these"  he  told  a  friend  during  the  campaign,  "but 
I  have  to  be  so  careful." 

In  his  inaugural  address  he  let  himself  go,  as 

8 


WARREN  GAMALIEL  HARDING 

much  as  it  is  possible  for  a  man  so  cautious  as  he  is 
to  let  himself  go.  It  was  a  great  speech,  an  in 
augural  to  place  alongside  the  inaugurals  of  Lin 
coln  and  Washington,  written  in  his  most  capable 
English,  Harding  at  his  best.  It  is  hard  for  a  man 
to  move  Marion  for  years  with  big  editorials,  to 
receive  the  daily  compliments  of  Dick  Cressinger 
and  Jim  Prendergast,  without  becoming  vain  of 
the  power  of  his  pen.  It  is  his  chief  vanity  and  it  is 
one  that  it  is  hard  for  him  who  speaks  or  writes 
to  escape.  He  has  none  of  that  egotism  which 
makes  a  self-confident  man  think  himself  the 
favorite  of  fortune. 

He  said  after  his  nomination  at  Chicago,  "We 
drew  to  a  pair  of  deuces  and  filled."  He  did  not 
say  it  boastfully  as  a  man  who  likes  to  draw  to  a 
pair  of  deuces  and  who  always  expects  to  fill.  He 
said  it  with  surprise  and  relief.  He  does  not  like 
to  hold  a  pair  of  deuces  and  be  forced  to  draw  to 
them.  He  has  not  a  large  way  of  regarding  losing 
and  winning  as  all  a  part  of  the  game.  He  hates  to 
lose.  He  hated  to  lose  even  a  friendly  game  of 
billiards  in  the  Marion  Club  with  his  old  friend 
Colonel  Christian,  father  of  his  secretary,  though 
the  stake  was  only  a  cigar. 

When  he  was  urged  to  seek  the  Republican 

9 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

nomination  for  the  Presidency  he  is  reported  to 
have  said,  "  Why  should  I.  My  chances  of  winning 
are  not  good.  If  I  let  you  use  my  name  I  shall 
probably  in  the  end  lose  the  nomination  for  the 
Senate.  (His  term  was  expiring.)  If  I  don't  run 
for  the  Presidency  I  can  stay  in  the  Senate  all  my 
life.  I  like  the  Senate.  It  is  a  very  pleasant  place. ' ' 

The  Senate  is  like  Marion,  Ohio,  a  very  pleasant 
place,  for  a  certain  temperament.  And  Mr.  Hard 
ing  stayed  in  Marion  all  his  life  until  force — a  vis 
exterior;  there  is  nothing  inside  Mr.  Harding  that 
urges  him  on  and  on — until  force  of  circumstances, 
of  politics,  of  other  men's  ambitions,  took  him  out 
of  Marion  and  set  him  down  in  Washington,  in  the 
Senate. 

The  process  of  uprooting  him  from  the  pleasant 
place  of  Marion  is  reported  to  have  been  thus 
described  by  his  political  transplanter,  the  present 
Attorney  General,  Mr.  Daugherty :  "When  it  came 
to  running  for  the  Senate  I  found  him,  sunning 
himself  in  Florida,  like  a  turtle  on  a  log  and  I  had  to 
push  him  into  the  water  and  make  him  swim." 

And  a  similar  thing  happened  when  it  came  to 
running  for  the  Presidency.  It  is  a  definite  type 
of  man  who  suns  himself  on  a  log,  who  is  seduced 
by  pleasant  places  like  Marion,  Ohio,  whom  the 

10 


WARREN  GAMALIEL  HARDING 

big  town  does  not  draw  into  its  magnetic  field, 
whose  heart  is  not  excited  by  the  larger  chances  of 
life.  Is  he  lazy?  Is  he  lacking  in  imagination? 
Does  he  hate  to  lose?  Does  he  want  self-confi 
dence?  Is  he  over  modest?  Has  he  no  love  for 
life,  life  as  a  great  adventure?  Whatever  he  is, 
Mr.  Harding  is  that  kind  of  man,  that  kind  of  man 
to  start  out  with. 

But  this  is  only  the  point  of  departure,  that 
choice  to  remain  in  a  pleasant  place  like  Marion, 
not  to  risk  what  you  have,  your  sure  place  in 
society  as  the  son  of  one  of  the  better  families,  the 
reasonable  prospect  that  the  growth  of  your  small 
town  will  bring  some  accretion  to  your  own  for 
tunes,  the  decision  not  to  hazard  greatly  in  New 
York  or  Chicago  or  on  the  frontier.  Life  asks  little 
of  you  in  those  pleasant  places  like  Marion  and  in 
return  for  that  little  gives  generously,  especially 
if  you  are,  to  begin  with,  well  placed,  if  you  are 
ingratiatingly  handsome,  if  your  personality  is 
agreeable — ''The  best  fellow  in  the  world  to  play 
poker  with  all  Saturday  night,"  as  a  Marionite 
feelingly  described  the  President  to  me,  and  if  you 
have  a  gift  of  words  as  handsome  and  abundant  as 
your  looks. 

Mr.  Harding  is  a  handsome  man,  endowed  with 

ii 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

the  gifts  that  reinforce  the  charm  of  his  exterior,  a 
fine  voice,  a  winning  smile,  a  fluency  of  which  his 
inaugural  is  the  best  instance;  an  ample  man,  you 
might  say.  But  he  is  too  handsome,  too  endowed, 
for  his  own  good,  his  own  spiritual  good.  The 
slight  stoop  of  his  shoulders,  the  soft  figure,  the 
heaviness  under  the  eyes  betray  in  some  measure 
perhaps  the  consequences  of  nature's  excessive 
generosity.  Given  all  these  things  you  take,  it 
may  be,  too  much  for  granted.  There  is  not  much 
to  stiffen  the  mental,  moral,  and  physical  fibers. 

Given  such  good  looks,  such  favor  from  nature, 
and  an  environment  in  which  the  struggle  is  not 
sharp  and  existence  is  a  species  of  mildly  purpose 
ful  flanerie.  You  lounge  a  bit  stoop-shoulderedly 
forward  to  success.  There  is  nothing  hard  about 
the  President.  I  once  described  him  in  somewhat 
this  fashion  to  a  banker  in  New  York  who  was  in 
terested  in  knowing  what  kind  of  a  President  we 
had. 

"You  agree,"  he  said,  "with  a  friend  of  Hard- 
ing's  who  came  in  to  see  me  a  few  days  ago.  This 
friend  said  to  me  'Warren  is  the  best  fellow  in  the 
world.  He  has  wonderful  tact.  He  knows  how  to 
make  men  work  with  him  and  how  to  get  the  best 
out  of  them.  He  is  politically  adroit.  He  is  con- 

12 


WARREN  GAMALIEL  HARDING 

scientious.  He  has  a  keen  sense  of  his  responsibili 
ties.  He  has  unusual  common  sense.'  And  he 
named  other  similar  virtues,  'Well,'  I  asked  him, 
'What  is  his  defect?'  'Oh, '  he  replied,  'the  only 
trouble  with  Warren  is  that  he  lacks  mentality." 

The  story,  like  most  stories,  exaggerates.  The 
President  has  the  average  man's  virtues  of  common 
sense  and  conscientiousness  with  rather  more  than 
the  average  man's  political  skill  and  the  average 
man's  industry  or  lack  of  industry.  His  mentality 
is  not  lacking;  it  is  undisciplined,  especially  in  its 
higher  ranges,  by  hard  effort.  There  is  a  certain 
softness  about  him  mentally.  It  is  not  an  accident 
that  his  favorite  companions  are  the  least  intellec 
tual  members  of  that  house  of  average  intelligence, 
the  Senate.  They  remind  him  of  the  mental  sur 
roundings  of  Marion,  the  pleasant  but  unstimulat- 
ing  mental  atmosphere  of  the  Marion  Club,  with  its 
successful  small  town  business  men,  its  local  store 
keepers,  its  banker  whose  mental  horizon  is  bound 
ed  by  Marion  County,  the  value  of  whose  farm 
lands  for  mortgages  he  knows  to  a  penny,  the 
lumber  dealer  whose  eye  rests  on  the  forests  of 
Kentucky  and  West  Virginia. 

The  President  has  never  felt  the  sharpening  of 
competition.  He  was  a  local  pundit  because  he 

13 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

was  the  editor.  He  was  the  editor  because  he 
owned  the  Republican  paper  of  Marion.  There 
was  no  effective  rival.  No  strong  intelligence 
challenged  his  and  made  him  fight  for  his  place. 
He  never  studied  hard  or  thought  deeply  on  public 
questions.  A  man  who  stays  where  he  is  put  by 
birth  tends  to  accept  authority,  and  authority  is 
strong  in  small  places.  The  acceptance  of  author 
ity  implies  few  risks.  It  is  like  staying  in  Marion 
instead  of  going  to  New  York  or  even  Cleveland. 
It  is  easier,  and  often  more  profitable  than  studying 
hard  or  thinking  deeply  or  inquiring  too  much. 

And  Mr.  Harding's  is  a  mind  that  bows  to 
authority.  What  his  party  says  is  enough  for  Mr. 
Harding.  His  party  is  for  protection  and  Mr. 
Harding  is  for  protection;  the  arguments  for  pro 
tection  may  be  readily  assimilated  from  the  edi 
torials  of  one  good  big  city  newspaper  and  from  a 
few  campaign  addresses.  His  party  is  for  the  re 
mission  of  tolls  on  American  shipping  in  the 
Panama  Canal  and  Mr.  Harding  is  for  the  remission 
of  tolls.  Mr.  Root  broke  with  his  party  on  tolls 
and  Mr.  Harding  is  as  much  shocked  at  Mr.  Root's 
deviation  as  the  matrons  of  Marion  would  be  over 
the  public  disregard  of  the  Seventh  Commandment 
by  one  of  their  number.  His  party  became  some- 

14 


WARREN  GAMALIEL  HARDING 

how  for  the  payment  of  Colombia's  Panama  claims 
and  Mr.  Harding  was  for  their  payment. 

A  story  tells  just  how  Senator  Kellogg  went  to 
the  President  to  oppose  the  Colombia  treaty.  After 
hearing  Mr.  Kellogg  Mr.  Harding  remarked,  "Well, 
Frank,  you  have  something  on  me.  You've  evi 
dently  read  the  treaty.  I  haven't." 

A  mind  accepting  authority  favors  certain  gen 
eral  policies.  It  is  not  sufficiently  inquiring  to 
trouble  itself  with  the  details.  Mr.  Harding  is  for 
all  sorts  of  things  but  is  content  to  be  merely  for 
them.  A  curious  illustration  developed  in  Marion, 
during  the  visits  of  the  best  minds.  He  said  to  the 
newspaper  men  there  one  day,  "  I  am  for  voluntary 
military  training. ' ' 

''What  would  you  train,  Mr.  President,"  asked 
one  of  the  journalists,  "officers  or  men?" 

The  President  hesitated.  At  last  he  said,  "I 
haven't  thought  of  that." 

"But,"  said  one  of  his  interlocutors,  "the 
colleges  are  training  a  lot  of  officers  now." 

This  brought  no  response. 

Another  who  had  experience  in  the  Great  War 
remarked,  "In  the  last  war  we  were  lacking  in 
trained  non-coms ;  it  would  be  a  good  idea  to  train 
a  lot  of  them." 

15 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

"Yes,"  rejoined  Mr.  Harding  eagerly,  "That 
would  be  a  good  idea." 

A  more  inquiring  mind  would  have  gone  further 
than  to  be  "for  voluntary  military  training."  A 
quicker,  less  cautious,  if  no  more  thorough  mind 
would  have  answered  the  first  question,  "What 
would  you  train,  officers  or  men?"  by  answering 
instantly  "Both." 

In  that  colloquy  you  have  revealed  all  the  men 
tal  habits  of  Mr.  Harding.  He  was  asked  once, 
after  he  had  had  several  conferences  with  Senator 
McCumber,  Senator  Smoot,  Representative  Ford- 
ney,  and  others  who  would  be  responsible  for  finan 
cial  legislation,  "Have  you  worked  out  the  larger 
details  of  your  taxation  policy?" 

"Naturally  not!"  was  his  reply.  That  "nat 
urally"  sprang  I  suppose  from  his  habit  of  believing 
that  somewhere  there  is  authority.  Somewhere 
there  would  be  authority  to  determine  what  the 
larger  details  of  the  party's  financial  policy  should 
be. 

Now,  this  authority  is  not  going  to  be  any  one 
man  or  any  two  men.  The  President,  his  friends 
tell  us,  is  jealous  of  any  assumption  of  power  by 
any  of  his  advisers.  He  is  unwilling  to  have  the 
public  think  that  any  other  than  himself  is  Presi- 

16 


WARREN  GAMALIEL  HARDING 

dent.  A  man  as  handsome  as  Harding,  as  vain  of 
his  literary  style  as  he  is,  has  an  ego  that  is  not 
capable  of  total  self-effacement.  He  will  bow  to 
impersonal  authority  like  that  of  the  party,  or 
invoke  the  anonymous  govei nance  of  "best  minds/' 
calling  rather  often  on  God  as  a  well  established 
authority,  but  he  will  not  let  authority  be  personal 
and  be  called  Daugherty,  or  Lodge  or  Knox  or 
whomever  you  will. 

The  President's  attitude  is  rather  like  that  of  the 
average  man  during  the  campaign.  If  you  said  to  a 
voter  on  a  Pullman,  "Mr.  Harding  is  a  man  of 
small  public  experience,  not  known  by  any  large 
political  accomplishment,"  he  would  always  an 
swer  optimistically ,  "Well,  they  will  see  to  it  that 
he  makes  good. ' '  Asked  who  ' '  They '  *  were  he  was 
always  vague  and  elusive,  gods  on  the  mountain 
perhaps.  There  is  an  American  religion,  the  aver 
age  man's  faith:  it  is  "Them."  "They"  are  the 
fountain  of  authority. 

As  Mr.  Harding  knew  little  competition  in 
Marion  so  he  has  known  little  competition  in  public 
life  which  in  this  country  is  not  genuinely  com 
petitive.  Mr.  Lloyd  George  is  at  the  head  of  the 
British  government  because  he  is  the  greatest 
master  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  a  generation 

2  17 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

and  he  is  chosen  by  the  men  who  know  him  for 
what  he  is,  his  fellow  members  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  An  American  President  is  selected  by 
the  newspapers,  which  know  little  about  him,  by 
the  politicians,  who  do  not  want  a  master  but  a 
slave,  by  the  delegates  to  a  national  convention, 
tired,  with  hotel  bills  mounting,  ready  to  name 
anybody  in  order  to  go  home.  The  presidency, 
the  one  great  prize  in  American  public  life,  is  at 
tained  by  no  known  rules  and  under  conditions 
which  have  nothing  in  them  to  make  a  man  work 
hard  or  think  hard,  especially  one  endowed  with  a 
handsome  face  and  figure,  an  ingratiating  person 
ality,  and  a  literary  style. 

The  small  town  man,  unimaginative  and  of 
restricted  mental  horizon  does  not  think  in  terms  of 
masses  of  mankind.  Masses  vaguely  appall  him. 
They  exist  in  the  big  cities  on  which  he  turned  his 
back  in  his  unaudacious  youth.  His  contacts  are 
with  individuals.  His  democracy  consists  in  smil 
ing  upon  the  village  painter  and  calling  him 
"Harry, "  in  always  nodding  to  the  village  cobbler 
and  calling  him  "Bill,"  in  stopping  on  the  street 
corner  with  a  group,  which  has  not  been  invited  to 
join  the  village  club,  putting  his  hand  on  the  shoul 
der  of  one  of  them  and  calling  them  "Fellows." 

18 


WARREN  GAMALIEL  HARDING 

Politics  in  the  small  town  is  limited  to  dealing  with 
persons,  to  enlisting  the  support  of  men  with  a 
following  at  the  polls. 

Mr.  Harding  once  drew  this  picture  of  his  idea  of 
politics.  "  If  I  had  a  policy  to  put  over  I  should  go 
about  it  this  way,"  he  said.  "You  all  know  the 
town  meeting,  if  not  by  experience,  by  hearsay. 
Now  if  I  had  a  program  that  I  wanted  to  have 
adopted  by  a  town  meeting  I  should  go  to  the  three 
or  four  most  influential  men  in  my  community. 
I  should  talk  it  out  with  them.  I  should  make 
concessions  to  them  until  I  had  got  them  to  agree 
with  me.  And  then  I  should  go  into  the  town 
meeting  feeling  perfectly  confident  that  my  plan 
would  go  through.  Well  it's  the  same  in  the  nation 
as  in  the  town  meeting,  or  in  the  whole  world,  if 
you  will.  I  should  always  go  first  to  the  three  or 
four  leading  men." 

Mr.  Harding  thinks  of  politics  in  this  personal 
way.  He  does  not  conceive  of  it  as  the  force  of 
ideas  or  the  weight  of  morality  moving  the  hearts 
of  mankind.  Mankind  is  only  a  word  to  him,  one 
that  he  often  uses, — or  perhaps  he  prefers  human 
ity,  which  has  two  more  syllables — a  large  loose 
word  that  he  employs  to  make  his  thought  look 
bigger  than  it  really  is,  something  like  the  stage 

19 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

device  for  making  an  ordinary  man  seem  ten  feet 
tall. 

Thus  he  will  never  try  to  move  the  mass  of  the 
people  as  his  predecessors  have.  He  will  not  "go 
to  the  country."  He  will  not  bring  public  opinion 
to  bear  as  a  disciplinary  force  in  his  household. 
He  will  treat  the  whole  United  States  as  if  it  were 
a  Marion,  consulting  endless  "best  minds,"  com 
posing  differences,  seeking  unity,  with  the  aid  of  his 
exceptional  tact. 

This  attitude  has  its  disadvantages.  If  you  have 
a  passion  for  ideas  and  an  indifference  for  persons 
you  can  say  ' '  yes  "  or  "  no  "  easily ;  you  may  end  by 
being  dictatorial  and  arrogant,  as  Mr.  Wilson  was; 
but  you  will  not  be  weak.  If,  on  the  contrary,  you 
are  indifferent  to  ideas  and  considerate  of  persons 
you  find  it  hard  to  say  "Decided"  to  any  question. 
And  somewhere  there  must  be  authority,  the  pass 
ing  of  the  final  judgment  and  the  giving  of  orders. 

But  he  compensates  for  his  own  defects.  Almost 
as  good  as  greatness  is  a  knowledge  of  your  own 
limitations ;  and  Mr.  Harding  knows  his  thoroughly. 
Out  of  his  modesty,  his  desire  to  reinforce  himself, 
has  proceeded  the  strongest  cabinet  that  Washing 
ton  has  seen  in  a  generation.  He  likes  to  have 
decisions  rest  upon  the  broad  base  of  more  than  one 

20 


WARREN  GAMALIEL  HARDING 

intelligence  and  he  has  surrounded  himself  for  this 
purpose  with  able  associates.  His  policies  will  lack 
imagination,  which  is  not  a  composite  product,  but 
they  will  have  practicality,  which  is  the  greatest 
common  denomination  of  several  minds;  and  he, 
moreover,  is  himself  unimaginative  and  practical. 

Whatever  superstructure  of  world  organization 
he  takes  part  in,  behind  it  will  be  the  reality,  a 
private  understanding  with  the  biggest  man  in 
sight;  for  this  reason  the  fall  of  Lloyd  George  and 
the  succession  of  a  Labor  government  in  England 
will  disconcert  him  terribly.  The  democratic 
passion  for  equality,  which  dogs  the  tracks  of  the 
great,  he  mollifies  by  reminding  the  nation  always 
that  he  is  "just  folks,'*  by  opening  the  White 
House  lawn  gates,  by  calling  everyone  by  his  first 
name.  So  constant  is  his  aim  to  appease  it  that 
I  wonder  if  he  is  not  sometimes  betrayed  into 
addressing  his  Secretary  of  State  as  "  Charley. " 


©  U.  and  U. 


WOODROW  WILSON 


WOODROW  WILSON 

THE  explanation  of  President  Wilson  will  be 
found  in  a  certain  inferiority.  When  all  his  per 
sonal  history  becomes  known,  when  his  papers  and 
letters  have  all  been  published  and  read,  when  the 
memoirs  of  others  have  told  all  that  there  is  to  be 
told,  there  will  stand  clear  something  inadequate, 
a  lack  of  robustness,  mental  or  nervous,  an  exces 
sive  sensitiveness,  over  self -consciousness,  shrink 
ing  from  life,  a  neurotic  something  that  in  the  end 
brought  on  defeat  and  the  final  overthrow.  He 
was  never  quite  a  normal  man  with  the  average 
man's  capacity  to  endure  and  enjoy  but  a  strange, 
impeded,  self-absorbed  personality. 

History  arranged  the  greatest  stage  of  all  time, 
and  on  it  placed  a  lot  of  little  figures,  "pigmy 
minds " — all  save  one,  and  he  the  nearest  great, 
an  unworldly  person  summoned  from  a  cloister, 
with  the  vision  of  genius  and  the  practical  in 
capacity  of  one  who  has  run  away  from  life,  hating 

25 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

men  but  loving  all  mankind,  eloquent  but  inarticu 
late  in  a  large  way,  incapable  of  true  self  expression 
in  his  chosen  field  of  political  action,  so  self-cen 
tered  that  he  forgot  the  world's  tragedy  and 
merged  it  into  his  own,  making  great  things  little 
and  little  things  great,  one  of  "life's  ironies,"  the 
everlasting  refutation  of  the  optimistic  notion  that 
when  there  is  a  crisis  fate  produces  a  man  big 
enough  to  meet  it. 

The  world  finds  it  hard  to  speak  of  Mr.  Wilson 
except  in  superlatives.  A  British  journalist  called 
him  the  other  day,  "the  wickedest  man  in  the 
world."  This  was  something  new  in  extravagance. 
I  asked,  "Why  the  wickedest?"  He  said,  "Be 
cause  he  was  so  unable  to  forget  himself  that  he 
brought  the  peace  of  the  world  down  in  a  common 
smash  with  his  own  personal  fortunes." 

On  the  other  hand  General  Jan  Christian  Smuts, 
writing  with  that  perspective  which  distance  gives, 
pronounces  it  to  be  not  Wilson's  fault  but  the 
fault  of  humanity  that  the  vision  of  universal  peace 
failed.  Civilization  was  not  advanced  enough  to 
make  peace  without  vindictiveness  possible. 

This  debate  goes  on  and  on.  Mr.  Wilson  is 
either  the  worst  hated  or  the  most  regretted  per 
sonality  of  the  Great  War.  The  place  of  no  one 

26 


WOODROW  WILSON 

else  is  worth  disputing.  Lloyd  George  is  the  con 
summate  politician,  limited  by  the  meanness  of 
his  art.  Clemenceau  is  the  personification  of 
nationality,  limited  by  the  narrowness  of  his  view. 
Mr.  Wilson  alone  had  his  hour  of  superlative 
greatness  when  the  whole  earth  listened  to  him  and 
followed  him;  an  hour  which  ended  with  him  only 
dimly  aware  of  his  vision  and  furiously  conscious 
of  pin  pricks. 

You  observe  this  inadequacy  in  Mr.  Wilson,  this 
incapacity  to  endure,  at  the  outset  of  his  career. 
It  is  characteristic  of  certain  temperaments  that 
when  they  first  face  life  they  should  run  away  from 
it  as  Mr.  Wilson  did  when,  having  studied  law  and 
having  been  admitted  to  the  bar,  he  abandoned 
practice  and  went  to  teach  in  a  girls'  school.  That 
was  the  early  sign  in  him  of  that  sense  of  unfitness 
for  the  more  arduous  contacts  of  life  which  was  so 
conspicuous  a  trait  during  his  presidency.  He1 
could  not  endure  meeting  men  on  an  equal  footing, 
where  there  was  a  conflict  of  wills,  a  rough  clash 
of  minds,  where  no  concession  was  made  to  sensi 
tiveness  and  egotism. 

Some  nervous  insufficiency  causes  this  shrinking, 
like  the  quick  retreat  from  cold  water  of  an  in 
adequate  body.  Commonly  a  man  who  runs  away 

27 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

from  life  after  the  first  contact  with  it  hates  himself 
for  his  flight  and  there  begins  a  conflict  inside  him 
which  ends  either  in  his  admission  of  defeat  and 
acknowledgment  of  his  unfitness  or  in  his  convinc 
ing  himself  that  his  real  motive  was  contempt  of 
that  on  which  he  turned  his  back.     If  he  admits  to 
himself  that  he  is  really  a  little  less  courageous,  a 
little  more  sensitive,  a  little  less  at  home  in  this 
world,  then  he  is  gone.     If  he  does  satisfy  himself^ 
that  he  is  superior,  has  higher  ideals,  worthier  / 
ends,   despises  the  ordinary  arts  of   success  hej 
becomes  arrogant,  merely  in  self  defense. 

Mr.  Wilson's  "intellectual  snobbism"  was  this 
kind  of  arrogance,  acquired  for  moral  self  preserva 
tion,  like  that  of  the  small  boy  who  when  his  com 
panions  refuse  to  play  with  him  says  to  himself 
that  he  is  smarter  than  they  are,  gets  higher  marks 
in  school,  that  he  has  a  better  gun  than  they  have 
or  that  he,  when  he  grows  up,  will  be  a  great  general 
while  they  are  nobody.  Almost  everyone  who 
feels  himself  unequal  in  some  direction  can  satisfy 
himself  that  he  exceeds  in  others.  It  is  a  common 
and  human  sort  of  arrogance,  and  Mr.  Wilson  had 
it  inordinately. 

He  hated  and  contemned  the  law,  in  which  life 
had  given  him  his  first  glimpse  of  his  frailty.  He 

28 


WOODROW  WILSON 

would  have  no  lawyers  make  the  peace  or  draft  the 
covenant  of  the  league  of  nations.  Lawyers 
were  pitiful  creatures, — he  kept  one  of  them  near 
him,  Mr.  Lansing,  admirably  chosen,  to  remind 
him  of  how  contemptible  they  were,  living  in  fear 
of  precedents,  writing  a  barbarous  jargon  out  of 
deeds  and  covenants,  impeding  the  freedom  of  the 
imagination  with  their  endless  citations. 

He  despised  politicians,  he  despised  business 
men,  he  despised  the  whole  range  of  men  who 
pursue  worldly  arts  with  success.  He  despised 
the  qualities  which  he  had  not  himself,  but  like 
all  men  who  are  arrogant  self  protectively  he  was 
driven  to  introspection  and  analyzed  himself 
pitilessly. 

The  public  got  glimpses  of  these  analyses. 
Sometimes  he  called  that  something  in  him  which 
left  him  less  fit  for  the  world  than  the  average,  a 
little  regretfully,  "his  singletrack  mind."  Some 
times  it  leaped  to  light  as  an  object  of  pride,  his 
arrogance  again,  a  pride  that  was  "too  great  to* 
fight,'*  like  the  common  run  of  men, — in  the  law 
courts  or  on  the  battlefields.  He  kept  asking  him 
self  the  question,  "Why  am  I  not  as  other  men 
are?",  and  sometimes  his  nature  would  rise  up  in 
protest  and  he  would  exclaim  that  he  was  as  other 

29 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

men  were  and  would  pathetically  tell  the  world 
that  he  was  "misunderstood,"  that  he  was  not 
cold  and  reserved  but  warm  and  genial  and  kindly, 
only  largely  because  the  world  would  see  him  as  he 
was. 

But  always  the  one  safe  recourse,  the  one  assur 
ance  of  personal  stability  was  arrogance.  Con 
tempt  was  the  most  characteristic  habit  of  his 
mind.  Out  of  office  he  is  no  sage  looking  charitably 
at  the  fumbling  of  his  successor. 

A  friend  who  has  seen  him  since  his  retirement 
describes  him  as  watching  "with  supreme  con 
tempt  "  the  executive  efforts  of  Mr.  Harding. 
Washington  gossip  credits  him  with  inventing  the 
phrase,  "the  bungalow  mind,"  to  describe  the 
present  occupant  of  the  White  House.  Another 
remark  of  his  about  the  new  President  is  said  to 
have  been  "I  look  forward  to  the  new  administra 
tion  with  no  unpleasant  anticipations,  except  those 
caused  by  Mr.  Harding's  literary  style." 

There  is  always  his  contrast  of  others  with  him 
self  to  their  disadvantage,  mentally  or  morally,  as 
writers,  or  leaders,  or  statesmen.  So  full  a  life  as 
Mr.  Wilson  led  in  the  last  dozen  or  more  years 
ought  to  have  made  him  less  self-conscious.  A 
robuster  person  would  have  hated  with  a  certain 

30 


WOODROW  WILSON 

zest,  continued  with  a  certain  gaiety,  laughed  as  he 
fought,  found  something  to  respect  in  his  foes, 
seen  the  curtain  fall  upon  his  own  activities  with  a 
certain  cheerfulness. 

He  seems  deficient  in  resources.  He  had  not 
that  gusto  which  richly  endowed  natures  ordinarily 
have.  He  found  no  fun  in  measuring  his  strength 
with  other  men's.  There  was  a  certain  overstrain 
about  him,  which  made  him  cushion  himself  about 
with  non-resistant  personalities.  He  lacked  curi 
osity.  His  fine  mind  seemed  to  want  the  energy 
to  interest  itself  in  the  details  of  any  subject  that 
filled  it,  and  this  was  one  of  his  fatal  weaknesses  at 
the  Peace  Conference.  Perhaps  it  was  a  defi 
ciency  of  vital  force.  Moreover  he  came  to  his 
great  task  tired.  His  life  till  he  was  past  fifty  was 
one  of  defeat.  There  was  the  early  disappoint 
ment  and  turning  back  from  law  practice,  the  giv 
ing  up  of  his  youthful  ambition  for  a  public  career 
to  which  he  had  trained  himself  passionately  by 
the  study  of  public  speaking.  Dr.  Albert  Shaw, 
who  was  his  fellow  student  at  Johns  Hopkins,  says 
that  in  the  University  Mr.  Wilson  was  the  finest 
speaker,  except  possibly  the  old  President  of  the 
College,  Dr.  Daniel  Coit  Gilman. 

Then  there  were  the  long  years  of  poverty  as  a 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

college  professor,  when  he  overworked  at  writing 
and  university  extension  lectures,  to  make  his 
small  salary  as  a  teacher  equal  to  the  support  of 
his  family,  his  three  children  and  his  aged  parents. 
There  was  his  failure  at  literature,  for  his  History 
of  the  United  States  brought  him  neither  fame  nor 
money,  the  public  finding  it  dull  and  unreadable. 

Then  the  crowning  unsuccess  as  President  of 
Princeton;  for  when  his  luck  changed  and  a  poli 
tical  career  opened  to  him  as  Governor  of  New 
Jersey,  with  trustees  and  alumni  against  him, 
nothing  seemed  to  be  before  him  but  resignation 
and  a  small  professorship  in  a  Southern  College.  It 
was  a  straightened  life  that  he  had  led  when  he 
came  to  Washington  for  the  first  time  as  President, 
scandalizing  the  servants  of  the  White  House  with 
the  scantness  of  his  personal  effects.  There  had 
been  neither  the  time  nor  the  means  nor  probably 
the  energy  for  larger  human  contacts.  And  some 
thing  inherent  always  held  him  back  from  the 
world,  something  which  diverted  him  to  academic 
life,  which  when  he  was  writing  his  Congressional 
Government,  his  best  book,  held  him  in  Baltimore, 
almost  a  suburb  of  Washington,  where  he  read 
what  he  wrote  to  his  fellow-students  at  Johns  Hop 
kins,  whose  livelier  curiosity  took  them  often  to  the 

32 


WOODROW  WILSON 

galleries  of  the  House  and  the  Senate  about  which 
he  was  writing  from  a  distance. 

Those  to  whom  life  is  kinder  than  it  was  during 
many  years  to  Mr.  Wilson  have  naturally  a  zest 
for  it.     Robuster  natures  than  his  even  though 
life  averts  her  face,  often  preserve  a  zest  for  it. 
Conscious  of  his  powers  he  seems  to  have  fortified 
himself  against  failure  with  scorn.     He  had  a  sconi 
for  the  intellects  of  those  who  succeed  by  arts  which 
he  did  not  possess.     He  had  scorn  for  politicians.' 
He  had  a  scorn  for  wealth.     He  had  a  scorn  for  his  \ 
enemies.     He  had  a  scorn  for  Republicans.     He^ 
had  a  scorn  for  the  men  with  whom  he  had  to  dealj 
in  Europe,  the  heads  of  the  Allied  Governments. 

Above  all  he  scorned  Lloyd  George,  an  instinct 
telling  him  that  the  British  Premier  had  a  thou 
sand  arts  where  he  himself,  unschooled  in  confer 
ence  with  equals,  had  none.  He  said  of  Lloyd 
George  just  before  he  sailed  for  Paris,  suspecting 
him  of  treachery  to  the  League  of  Nations,  "I  shall 
look  him  in  the  eye  and  say  to  him  Damn  you,  if 
you  do  not  accept  the  League  I  shall  go  to  the 
people  of  Great  Britain  and  say  things  to  them  that 
will  shake  your  government.*' 

When  he  made  this  threat  he  could  not  foresee 
that  the  compromise  of  the  Peace  would  leave  him 
»  33 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

with  so  little  character  that  British  Liberals,  their 
faith  destroyed,  should  in  the  end  couple  his  name 
with  their  own  Premier's  and  exclaim,  "  Your  man 
Wilson  talks  like  Jesus  Christ,  but  he  acts  like 
Lloyd  George!" 

More  than  all  others  he  scorned  Lodge.  The 
Massachusetts  Senator  who  had  put  by  scholar 
ship  for  politics  and  had  won  the  opportunity  to  do 
menial  service  for  a  political  machine  hated  the 
man  who  had  chosen  scholarship,  for  whatever 
motive,  and  come  out  with  the  Presidency.  You 
hate  the  man  you  might  perhaps  have  been  if  you 
had  chosen  more  boldly,  more  according  to  your 
heart — if  you  are  like  Mr.  Lodge. 

A  life  of  demeaning  himself  to  politicians,  of 
waiting  for  dead  men's  shoes  in  the  Senate,  had, 
however,  brought  some  compensations  to  Lodge, 
among  others  an  inordinate  capacity  to  hurt.  The 
Massachusetts  Senator  could  get  under  the  Presi 
dent's  skin  as  no  other  man  could.  Washington  is 
a  place  where  every  whisper  is  heard  in  the  White 
House. 

Mr.  Lodge's  favorite  private  charge  uttered  in  a 
tone  of  withering  scorn  was  that  the  President 
failed  to  respond  as  a  man  would  to  the  national 
insult  offered  by  Germany  in  sinking  the  Lusitania 

34 


WOODROW  WILSON 

because  there  was  something  womanish  about  him 
and  he  would  tell,  to  prove  it,  how  Wilson  went 
white  and  almost  collapsed  over  the  news  that 
blood  had  been  shed  through  the  landing  of 
American  marines  at  Vera  Cruz. 

The  President  hardly  failed  to  hear  this.  Per 
haps  it  reminded  him  of  that  something  in  him 
which  he  was  always  trying  to  forget,  that  some 
thing  which  diverted  his  life  toward  failure  at  the 
outset,  which  once  betrayed  him,  with  a  strange 
mixture  of  the  arrogance  and  inferiority,  into  his 
famous  words  "too  proud  to  fight." 

At  any  rate  mutual  comprehension  and  hatred 
between  these  two  men  was  instinctive,  each  hav 
ing  the  opposite  choice  in  the  beginning  and  neither 
in  his  heart  perhaps  ever  having  forgiven  himself 
wholly  for  his  choice.  Mr.  Wilson  could  never  get 
Mr.  Lodge  wholly  out  of  his  mind  in  the  last  two 
years  of  his  Presidency,  a  disability  which  pre 
vented  him  from  looking  quite  calmly  and  sanely 
at  public  questions. 

The  story  of  the  President's  appeal  for  a  Demo 
cratic  Congress  in  1918  which  has  never  been  fully 
told,  illustrates  the  bearing  this  Lodge  obsession 
had  upon  Mr.  Wilson's  later  fate.  When  the  Con 
gressional  election  was  approaching  ex-Congress- 

35 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

man  Scott  Ferris,  then  acting  as  Chairman  of  the 
Democratic  National  Committee,  went  to  the 
President  and  told  him  that  there  was  danger  of 
losing  both  houses  of  Congress,  the  lower  house  not 
being  important,  but  the  Senate  as  a  factor  in 
foreign  relations,  Mr.  Ferris  suggested,  was  indis 
pensable  to  the  Democratic  party.  Mr.  Wilson 
was  more  hopeful  but  agreed  to  take  under  advise 
ment  some  sort  of  appeal  to  the  country.  It  was 
not  desired  that  this  should  be  anything  more  than 
a  letter,  perhaps  to  Mr.  Ferris,  intended  for  pub 
lication,  and  pointing  out  the  need  of  support  for 
the  President's  policies  in  the  next  Congress. 

Shortly  afterward  Mr.  Tumulty,  the  President's 
Secretary,  brought  to  the  Shoreham  Hotel  in  Wash 
ington  an  appeal  to  the  country  for  a  Democratic 
Congress  and  read  it  to  several  Democrats  gathered 
there  for  the  purpose,  including  Homer  S.  Cum- 
mings,  who,  by  that  time,  had  become  acting 
Chairman  of  the  Democratic  National  Committee 
and  was  in  charge  of  the  campaign.  Mr.  Cum- 
mings  doubted  the  wisdom  of  an  appeal,  couched 
in  such  terms  as  the  one  Mr.  Tumulty  read.  He 
took  it  to  Vance  McCormick,  Chairman  of  the 
Democratic  National  Committee,  who,  because  he 
was  Chairman  of  the  War  Trade  Board,  was  not 

36 


WOODROW  WILSON 

taking  part  in  the  election.  Mr.  McCormick  agreed 
with  Mr.  Cummings  that  the  appeal  as  written 
would  do  more  harm  than  good  to  the  Democratic 
party,  saying  that  the  war  had  not  been  conducted 
on  a  partisan  basis,  that  some  of  his  own  associates 
on  the  War  Trade  Board  were  Republicans  and 
that  Mr.  Wilson  should  ask  for  the  reelection  of  all 
who  had  been  loyal  supporters  of  the  war,  whether 
Republicans  or  Democrats. 

The  appeal  to  the  country  as  it  then  stood  con 
tained  a  bitter  denunciation  of  Senator  Lodge. 
What  Wilson  chiefly  saw  in  a  Republican  victory 
was  himself  at  the  mercy  of  the  man  he  hated  worst, 
the  Massachusetts  Senator.  Mr.  McCormick 
thought  that  if  the  President  was  going  to  name 
names  he  must,  at  least,  denounce  Claude  Kitchen, 
the  Democratic  leader  of  the  House,  as  well  as 
Senator  Lodge.  If  Mr.  Wilson  would  ask  for  the 
reelection  of  those  who  had  been  loyal,  of  what 
ever  party,  listing  the  offenders,  of  both  parties, 
including  Mr.  Lodge  if  he  must,  Mr.  McCormick 
believed  that  the  impression  on  the  country  would 
be  favorable  and  thus  a  Democratic  Congress 
might  be  elected. 

Being  agreed,  Mr.  Cummings  and  Mr.  McCor 
mick  went  to  the  White  House  and  argued  for  a 

37 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

less  partisan  appeal.  All  they  accomplished  was 
the  striking  of  Mr.  Lodge's  name  out  of  the  appeal 
by  convincing  Mr.  Wilson  that  he  could  not  at 
tack  the  Republican  Senator  while  ignoring  the 
worse  offenses  of  Mr.  Kitchen  and  Champ  Clark 
in  his  own  party. 

For  the  rest,  the  President  made  the  appeal 
more  purely  personal  and  more  partisan  than 
before.  He  could  not  get  the  Lodge  obsession  out 
of  his  mind.  He  could  not  bring  himself  to  ask 
for  the  election  of  members  of  Mr.  Lodge's  party. 
The  wisdom  of  Mr.  Cummings  and  Mr.  McCor- 
mick  was  soon  vindicated.  The  appeal  with 
Mr.  Lodge's  name  out  was  only  a  shade  less 
impolitic  than  it  would  have  been  with  his  name 
in.  It  gave  Mr.  Lodge  his  majority  in  the  Senate 
and  turned  the  peace  into  a  personal  issue  between 
the  two  "scholars  in  politics." 

By  this  time  Mr.  Wilson  had  lost  his  sense  of 
actuality.  He  could  ask  the  nation  for  a  Congress 
to  his  liking  as  a  personal  due.  He  could  condemn 
Mr.  Lodge  as  an  enemy  of  those  purposes  with 
which  we  entered  the  war,  simply  because  Mr. 
Lodge  could  hurt  him  as  no  other  man  could.  The 
President  had  been  talking  for  some  months  to  the 
whole  world  and  the  whole  world  had  listened  with 

38 


WOODROW  WILSON 

profound  attention.  His  mission  had  taken,  un 
consciously  perhaps,  a  Messianic  character.  His 
enemies  were  the  enemies  of  God.  The  ordinary 
metes  and  bounds  of  personality  had  broken  down. 
The  state  of  mind  revealed  in  the  appeal  as  origin 
ally  written  was  the  state  of  mind  of  the  Peace 
Conference  and  of  the  fight  over  the  Treaty  and 
the  League  which  succeeded  the  Peace  Conference. 
All  that  happened  afterwards,  including  the  pitiful 
personal  tragedy,  had  become  inevitable. 

For  a  while  at  Paris  amid  the  triumphs  of  his 
European  reception  and  the  successes  of  the  first 
few  months  up  to  the  adoption  of  the  League 
covenant  Mr.  Wilson  forgot  Mr.  Lodge,  forgot  him 
too  completely. 

It  was  my  fortune  to  see  him  at  the  apex  of  his 
career.  He  was  about  to  sail  for  America  on  that 
visit  which  he  made  here  in  the  midst  of  the  treaty 
making.  His  League  covenant  had  just  been 
agreed  to.  The  world  had  accepted  him.  Fate 
had  led  him  far  from  those  paths  of  defeat  and  ob 
scurity  into  which  his  sensitiveness  and  shyness 
had  turned  him  as  a  youth.  He  was  elated  and 
confident.  He  looked  marvelously  fresh  and  young, 
his  color  warm  and  youthful,  his  eye  alive  with 
pleasure. 

39 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

He  talked  long  and  well,  answered  questions 
freely,  told  stories  of  his  associates  at  the  peace 
table,  especially  of  one  who  never  read  the  memo 
randa  his  secretaries  prepared,  who  was  so  deaf 
that  he  could  not  hear  a  word  spoken  in  conference 
and  who  spoke  so  loudly  that  no  one  could  inter 
rupt  him.  "What  could  one  do,"  Mr.  Wilson 
asked,  "to  penetrate  a  mind  like  that?"  M. 
Clemenceau,  who  unlike  this  other  commissioner, 
had  eyes  and  saw  not,  had  ears  and  neither  would 
he  hear,  had  said  to  him  once,  in  response  to  a  firm 
negative,  "You  have  a  heart  of  steel!"  "I  felt 
like  replying  to  him,"  flashed  Mr.  Wilson,  "I  have 
not  the  heart  to  steal!" 

So  well  poised,  so  sure  of  himself  he  felt  that  he 
could  do  an  extraordinary  thing.  He  could  laugh 
off  a  mistake.  Robuster  natures  accept  mistakes 
as  a  child  accepts  tumbles.  Mistakes  for  Mr. 
Wilson  were  ordinarily  crises  for  his  arrogancy. 

You  may  judge,  then,  how  confident  he  was  at 
that  supreme  moment.  He  could  brush  aside  a 
great  mistake  lightly.  Someone  asked  him , l '  What 
about  the  freedom  of  the  seas?" 

"The  freedom  of  the  seas!"  he  answered,  "I 
must  tell  you  about  that.  It's  a  great  joke  on  me. 
I  left  America  thinking  the  freedom  of  the  seas 

40 


WOODROW  WILSON 

the  most  important  issue  of  the  Peace  Conference. 
When  I  got  here  I  found  there  was  no  such  issue. 
You  see  the  freedom  of  the  seas  concerns  neutrals 
in  time  of  war.  But  when  we  have  the  League  of 
Nations  there  will  be  no  neutrals  in  time  of  war. 
So,  of  course,  there  will  be  no  question  of  the  free 
dom  of  the  seas.  I  hadn't  thought  the  thing  out 
clearly." 

From  that  moment  the  decline  began.  Mr. 
Wilson  had  unwisely  chosen  to  have  his  victory 
first  and  his  defeats  afterward,  always  bad  general 
ship. 

Compromise  followed  compromise,  each  one 
destructive.  The  fourteen  points  were  impaired 
until  Mr.  Wilson  hated  to  be  reminded  of  them  by 
Lloyd  George,  in  the  case  of  Dantzig  and  the 
Polish  corridor.  The  dawn  of  a  better  world  grew 
dubious.  The  ardor  of  mankind  cooled.  They 
were  at  first  incredulous,  then  skeptical. 

The  President  saw  only  slowly  the  consequences 
of  that  chaffering  to  which  Mr.  Lloyd  George  and 
M.  Clemenceau  led  him.  He  was  a  poor  merchant. 
He  dealt  in  morals  and  could  cast  up  no  daily  bal 
ance.  He  was  busy  with  details  for  which  his 
mind  had  no  sufficient  curiosity  or  energy.  Mr. 
Keynes,  in  his  remarkable  description  of  Mr. 

41 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

Wilson  making  peace,  says  that  his  mind  was  slow. 

Doubtless  it  was  slow  in  political  trading  about 
the  council  table,  just  as  a  philosopher  may  be  slow 
in  the  small  talk  of  a  five  o'clock  tea. 

Mr.  Wilson  was  out  of  his  element  in  the  con 
ference;  Mr.  Lloyd  George  and  M.  Clemenceau 
were  in  theirs.  Gradually  the  conviction  entered 
Mr.  Wilson's  soul  that  what  was  being  destroyed 
at  Paris  was  Mr.  Wilson.  The  figure  of  Senator 
Lodge  began  to  rise  across  the  Atlantic,  malevo 
lent  and  evil,  the  Lodge  against  whom  he  had 
wanted  to  appeal  to  the  American  people. 

The  strain  was  telling  upon  him.  He  had  to  sit 
beside  his  destroyers  with  that  smiling  amiability 
which  Mr.  Lansing  records  in  his  book.  He  had 
to  deal  with  men  on  a  basis  of  equality,  a  thing 
which  he  had  run  away  from  doing  in  his  youth, 
which  all  his  life  had  made  too  great  demands 
upon  his  sensitive,  arrogant  nature. 

One  whose  duty  it  was  to  see  him  every  night 
after  the  meetings  of  the  Big  Three  reports  that  he 
found  him  with  the  left  side  of  his  face  twitching. 
To  collect  his  memory  he  would  pass  his  hand 
several  times  wearily  over  his  brow.  The  ardu- 
ousness  of  the  labor  was  not  great  enough  to 
account  for  this.  M.  Clemenceau  at  nearly  eighty 

42 


WOODROW  WILSON 

stood  the  strain  and  an  assassin's  bullet  as  well. 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  thrived  on  what  he  did.  But 
the  issue  was  not  personal  with  them.  Neither 
was  assisting,  with  difficult  amiability,  at  his  own 
destruction.  The  time  came  when  he  might  have 
had  back  some  of  the  ground  he  had  given.  Mr. 
Lloyd  George  offered  it  to  him.  He  would  not 
have  it.  What  it  was  proposed  to  amend  was  not 
so  much  the  peace  treaty  as  Mr.  Wilson  himself, 
and  he  could  not  admit  that  he  needed  amendment. 

The  issue  had  become  personal  and  Mr.  Lodge, 
upon  Mr.  Wilson's  return,  with  malevolent  under 
standing,  kept  it  personal.  The  Republicans  made 
their  fight  in  the  one  way  that  made  yielding  by 
the  President  impossible.  They  made  it  nominally 
on  the  League  but  really  on  Mr.  Wilson.  The 
President  might  have  compromised  on  the  League, 
but  he  could  not  compromise  on  Mr.  Wilson.  Of 
such  involvement  in  self  there  could  be  only  one 
end. 

Like  a  poet  of  one  poem,  Mr.  Wilson  is  a  states 
man  of  one  vision,  an  inspiring  vision,  but  one 
which  his  own  weakness  kept  him  from  realizing. 
His  domestic  achievements  are  not  remarkable, 
his  administration  being  one  in  which  movements 
came  to  a  head  rather  than  one  in  which  much  was 

43 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

initiated.  He  might  have  cut  the  war  short  by 
two  years  and  saved  the  world  much  havoc,  if  he 
had  begun  to  fight  when  the  Lusitania  was  sunk. 
Once  in  the  war  he  saw  his  country  small  and  him 
self  large;  he  did  not  conceive  of  the  nation  as 
winning  the  war  by  sending  millions  of  men  to 
France ;  he  saw  himself  as  winning  the  war  by  talk 
ing  across  the  Atlantic.  At  the  Peace  Conference 
he  did  not  conceive  of  his  country's  winning  the 
peace  by  the  powerful  position  in  which  victory 
had  left  it ;  he  saw  himself  as  winning  the  peace  by 
the  hold  he  personally  had  upon  the  peoples  of 
Europe.  Like  Napoleon,  of  whom  Marshal  Foch 
wrote  recently,  "II  oublia  qu'un  homme  ne  peut 
etre  Dieu;  qu'au-dessus  de  V  individu,  il  y  a  la 
nation, "  he  forgot  that  man  can  not  be  God; 
that  over  and  above  the  individual  there  is  the 
nation. 

In  politics  he  knew  at  first  better  than  any  other, 
again  to  quote  Foch,  that  "above men  is  morality. " 
This  knowledge  brought  him  many  victories.  But 
at  critical  junctures,  as  in  his  1918  appeal  to  the 
voters  and  in  the  treaty  fight,  he  forgot  that 
morality  was  above  one  man,  himself.  He  ex 
celled  in  appeals  to  the  heart  and  conscience  of  the 
nation,  a  gift  Mr.  Harding  has  not;  the  lesser  arts 

44 


WOODROW  WILSON 

of  the  politician,  tact  and  skill  in  the  handling  and 
selecting  of  men,  were  lacking. 

He  forgot  in  his  greatness  and  aloofness  the 
national  passion  for  equality;  which  a  more  bril 
liant  politician,  Mr.  Roosevelt,  appeased  by  acting 
as  the  people's  court  jester,  and  which  a  shrewder 
politician,  Mr.  Harding,  guards  against  by  re 
minding  the  country  that  he  is  "just  folks";  and 
in  the  end  the  masses  turned  upon  him,  like  a 
Roman  mob  on  a  defeated  gladiator. 


©  U.  and  U. 


GEORGE   HARVEY 


GEORGE  HARVEY 

THERE  is  something  inscrutably  ludicrous  in  the 
anxiety,  bordering  upon  consternation,  that  lurks 
in  the  elongated  and  grotesque  shadow  that  George 
Harvey  casts  upon  Washington.  The  Republican 
fathers,  who  now  feel  a  sense  of  responsibility,  after 
a  lapse  of  many  years,  for  the  future  of  party  and 
country,  do  not  yet  know  how  to  take  him. 

As  a  campaign  assefc  his  value  could  be  expressed 
in  intelligible  terms.  But  as  a  party  liability,  or 
asset, — many  a  good  Republican  wishes  he  knew 
which, — he  remains  an  enigma.  There  is  not  one 
of  the  array  of  elders  of  either  political  persuasion 
who,  while  Ipughing  at  his  satirical  sword-play, 
does  not  watcii  him  covertly  out  of  the  corner  of 
the  eye,  trembling  at  the  potential  ruin  they 
consider  him  capable  of  accomplishing. 

With  all  his  weaknesses, — principally  an  almost 
hilarious  political  irregularity, — but  two  Republi 
can  hands  were  raised  against  him  in  the  Senate 

49 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

when  he  was  nominated  for  the  Court  of  Saint 
James.  When  he  rather  unbecomingly  filliped 
John  Bull  on  the  nose  in  his  maiden  speech  as  the 
premier  ambassador,  incidentally  ridiculing  some 
of  his  own  countrymen's  war  ideals,  President  Hard 
ing  and  Secretary  Hughes,  gravely  and  with  rather 
obvious  emphasis,  tried  to  set  the  matter  aright  as 
best  they  could.  But  there  was  no  hint  of  repri 
mand;  only  a  fervent  hope  that  the  mercurial 
Harvey  would  remain  quiescent  until  the  memory 
of  the  episode  passed. 

The  quondam  editor,  now  the  representative  of 
his  country  on  the  Supreme  Council,  in  which 
capacity  he  is  even  more  important  than  as  Am 
bassador,  represents  a  new  strain  in  American 
politics.  His  mental  habits  bewilder  the  President, 
shock  the  proper  and  somewhat  conventional 
Secretary  of  State,  and  throw  such  repositories  of 
national  divinity  as  Senators  Lodge  and  Knox 
into  utter  confusion. 

Harvey  plays  the  game  of  politics  according  to 
his  own  rules,  the  underlying  principle  of  which  is 
audacity.  He  knows  very  well  that  the  weak  spot 
in  the  armor  of  nearly  all  politicians  of  the  old 
school  is  their  assumption  of  superiority,  a  sort  of 
mask  of  benignant  political  venerability.  They 


GEORGE  HARVEY 

dread  satire.  They  shrink  from  ridicule.  A  well- 
directed  critical  outburst  freezes  them.  Such  has 
been  the  Harvey  method  of  approach.  Having 
reduced  his  subjects  to  a  state  of  terror,  he  flatters 
them,  cajoles  them,  and  finally  makes  terms  with 
them;  but  he  always  remains  a  more  or  less  un 
stable  and  uncertain  quantity,  potentially  ex 
plosive. 

There  is  not  much  of  the  present  Harvey  to  be 
gleaned  from  his  earlier  experiences,  except  the 
pertinacity  that  has  had  much  to  do  with  his  ir 
regular  climb  up  the  ladder.  He  was  born  in 
Peacham,  Vermont,  where  as  a  boy  after  school 
hours  he  mounted  a  stool  in  his  father's  general 
store  and  kept  books.  At  the  end  of  the  year  his 
accounts  were  short  a  penny.  Because  of  this  he 
received  no  Christmas  gift  not,  as  he  has  said, 
because  his  father  begrudged  the  copper  more  than 
any  other  Vermont  storekeeper,  but  because  he  was 
meticulously  careful  himself  and  expected  the 
younger  generation  to  be  likewise. 

This  experience  must  have  been  etched  upon 
Harvey's  memory;  no  one  can  be  more  meticulous 
when  his  interest  is  aroused.  To  money  he  is  in 
different,  but  a  misplaced  word  makes  him  shudder. 
Writing  with  him  is  an  exhausting  process,  which 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

probably  accounts  for  the  fact  that  his  literary 
output  has  been  small.  But  the  same  power  of 
analysis  and  attention  to  detail  have  been  most 
effective  in  his  political  activities.  In  these  his 
divination  has  been  prophetic  and  in  his  manipula 
tion  of  contending  elements  he  shows  a  dexterity 
that  has  baffled  even  the  professional  politicians. 

Harvey  began  his  journalistic  career  upon  the 
Peacham  Patriot.  Thence,  with  a  borrowed  ten 
dollar  bill,  he  went  to  Springfield,  serving  his  ap 
prenticeship  on  the  Republican,  the  best  school  of 
journalism  in  the  country  at  that  time.  Later,  on 
the  Crrcago  Evening  News,  on  the  staff  of  which 
were  Victor  Lawson,  Eugene  Field,  and  Melville 
Stone,  he  completed  his  training. 

When  he  joined  the  staff  of  the  New  York  World 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  was  a  competent,  if 
not  a  brilliant  newspaper  man.  His  first  important 
billet  was  the  New  Jersey  editorship.  This  assign 
ment  across  the  river  might  very  easily  have  been 
the  first  step  toward  a  journalistic  sepulcher,  but 
not  for  Harvey.  He  made  use  of  the  post  to 
garner  an  experience  and  knowledge  of  New  Jersey 
politics  that  were  to  have  an  important  bearing 
upon  the  career  of  Woodrow  Wilson  later.  At  the 
same  time  he  attracted  the  attention  of  Joseph 

52 


GEORGE  HARVEY 

Pulitzer  who  appointed  him  managing  editor  of  the 
World  before  he  was  thirty. 

While  directing  the  World's  policy  during  the 
second  Cleveland  campaign,  Harvey  met  Thomas 
F.  Ryan  and  William  C.  Whitney,  the  financial 
backers  of  the  Democratic  party.  This  prepared 
the  way  for  his  step  from  Park  Row  to  Wall  Street 
after  his  break  with  Pulitzer. 

But  the  ways  of  Wall  Street  were  not  for  Harvey. 
Nevertheless  he  was  cautious  enough  to  help  him 
self  to  some  of  the  profits  that  were  forthcoming  in 
those  days  of  great  amalgamations.  With  com 
mendable  foresight,  however  much  he  might  have 
despised  the  methods  then  prevalent  in  the  fields 
of  high  finance,  he  acquired  enough  to  make  him 
independent,  to  follow  his  own  bent,  and  strangely 
enough,  in  the  acquiring  he  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  Republic  could  not  survive  if  the  plunder 
ing  of  the  people  by  the  "interests"  continued  as 
it  was  proceeding  at  that  time. 

He  withdrew  from  the  Street  and  eventually 
purchased  The  North  American  Review.  In  the 
meantime  J.  P.  Morgan  and  Company  had  under 
written  the  bonds  of  the  Harper  publishing  house 
and  the  elder  Morgan  asked  Harvey  to  take  charge 
of  the  institution.  This  he  agreed  to  do  with  the 

53 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

understanding  that  he  should  be  permitted  to 
direct  the  policy  of  Harper's  Weekly,  one  of  the 
assets  of  the  firm,  without  interference  from  the 
bankers. 

With  his  peculiar  faculty  for  detecting  the  weak 
nesses  of  financiers  and  politicians,  Harvey  now 
had  before  him  an  opportunity  which  was  not 
afforded  by  the  sedate  old  North  American  Review 
and  he  promptly  took  advantage  of  it.  He  had 
seen  enough  of  the  union  of  finance  and  politics  to 
place  little  faith  in  either  of  the  old  parties.  One 
was  corrupt  and  powerful;  the  other  was  weak  and 
parasitical.  In  both  organizations  money  was  a 
compelling  consideration.  Not  being  accustomed 
to  think  in  terms  of  party  allegiance  Harvey  de 
cided  that  the  only  remedy  for  a  very  bad  situation 
was  a  militant  Democracy.  He  had  the  organ; 
next  he  needed  the  leader. 

About  this  time,  quite  accidentally,  he  was 
present  at  Woodrow  Wilson's  inauguration  as 
president  of  Princeton  University.  The  professor 
appealed  to  the  editor, — why,  one  can  only  conjec 
ture.  Perhaps  it  was  a  common  abhorrence  of 
machine  politics,  a  passion  for  phrase  turning,  for 
there  is  a  similarity  in  the  methods  of  the  two  which 
separates  them  from  the  rank  and  file  of  ordinary 

54 


GEORGE  HARVEY 

politicians.  Harvey  scrutinized  Wilson  more  care 
fully,  making  a  political  diagnosis  by  a  careful 
examination  of  his  works,  and  decided  that  he  was 
the  man  to  turn  the  trick. 

But  the  gap  between  the  presidency  of  Princeton 
and  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States  was  too 
wide  to  be  taken  at  one  leap.  Harvey  concluded 
that  the  governorship  of  New  Jersey  must  be  the 
intermediate  step.  The  Democratic  year  of  1910 
provided  the  opportunity. 

The  New  Jersey  politicians  did  not  care  about 
the  college  professor.  They  had  already  chosen  a 
candidate,  but  Harvey  induced  them  to  change 
their  minds.  How  this  was  accomplished  is  an 
absorbing  political  tale,  too  long  to  be  narrated 
here.  The  New  Jersey  political  leaders  of  that 
period  will  tell  you  that  if  Mr.  Wilson's  "forward- 
looking"  men  had  controlled  the  convention  he 
never  would  have  been  nominated.  They  will  also 
tell  you  how  Joseph  Patrick  Tumulty  opposed  the 
nomination.  They  will  even  whisper  that  the  con 
tests  were  settled  rather  rapidly  that  memorable 
evening.  After  the  nomination  was  announced, 
Mr.  Wilson's  managers  escorted  him  to  the  conven 
tion  hall  where  he  addressed  a  group  of  delegates 
who  were  none  too  enthusiastic. 

55 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

As  they  motored  back  to  the  hotel  Mr.  Wilson  is 
reported  to  have  asked:  "By  the  way,  gentleman, 
what  was  my  majority?*' 

To  which  Mr.  Nugent  replied  cryptically:  "It 
was  enough." 

The  question,  at  least  in  the  presence  of  these 
gentlemen,  it  is  said  was  never  asked  again. 

Much  has  been  said  about  the  break  between  Mr. 
Harvey  and  Mr.  Wilson.  The  published  corres 
pondence  gives  a  fairly  accurate  picture  of  what 
happened  at  the  Manhattan  Club  on  the  morning 
of  the  parting.  I  do  not  believe  that  Mr.  Wilson 
dropped  Colonel  Harvey  because  he  feared  he  was 
under  Wall  Street  influence.  The  Harvey  version 
sounds  more  plausible.  According  to  this  the  erst 
while  university  professor  had  learned  the  tech 
nique  of  political  strategy.  He  no  longer  felt  that 
he  was  in  need  of  guidance. 

' '  I  was  not  surprised  at  the  excuse  he  gave  a  little 
later  when  the  break  came,"  said  Harvey.  "I 
would  not  have  been  surprised  at  any  excuse  he 
offered." 

Mr.  Harvey  retired  from  the  campaign.  Har 
per's  Weekly  had  been  wrecked,  whether  or  not  by 
the  espousal  of  the  Wilson  cause,  and  he  sold  it  to 
Norman  Hapgood  who  buried  it  in  due  course. 

56 


GEORGE  HARVEY 

George  Harvey  might  or  might  not  have  had 
visions  of  an  appointment  to  the  Court  of  St.  James 
at  that  time.  It  is  at  least  certain  that  his  dis 
appointment  was  keen,  taking  a  form  of  vindictive- 
ness  which  will  survive  as  a  distinct  blot  upon  his 
career.  In  the  preconvention  campaign  he  aligned 
himself  with  the  Champ  Clark  forces,  but  it  was 
too  late  to  undo  the  work  he  had  done. 

This  episode  is  necessary  to  an  understanding  of 
what  happened  later.  His  transfer  from  the  Demo 
cratic  to  the  Republican  party  was  a  characteristi 
cally  bold  move.  How  genuine  his  later  allegiance 
may  be  is  a  question  which  more  than  one  Re 
publican  would  like  to  have  answered,  but  there 
is  no  doubt  of  the  success  of  his  coup.  He  is,  at 
least  where  he  wanted  to  be,  occupying  the  post 
which  he  considers,  in  point  of  importance,  next 
to  the  presidency  itself,  Mr.  Hughes  notwith 
standing. 

When  the  United  States  entered  the  war  Harvey 
found  himself  in  the  secluded  position  of  editor  of 
the  North  American  Review.  This  did  not  suit  his 
disposition  at  all  and  he  was  very  unhappy.  He 
was  too  old  to  fight  and  it  was  not  likely  that  he 
would  be  invited  to  Washington.  In  the  meantime 
stories  of  mismanagement  in  the  conduct  of  the 

57 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

war  began  to  trickle  out  of  the  capital  in  devious 
undercurrents.  The  press,  in  a  passive  spirit  of 
patriotism,  was  silent.  Here  was  the  opportunity. 

In  January,  1918,  the  first  edition  of  the  North 
American  Review  War  Weekly  appeared.  Its 
editor  announced  that  its  purpose  was  to  help  win 
the  war  by  telling  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and 
nothing  but  the  truth.  He  defied  the  Creels,  the 
Daniels,  and  the  Burlesons,  adopting  the  motto, 
"To  hell  with  the  censors  and  bureaucrats." 

The  journal  was  an  instant  success.  Not  only 
was  it  read  with  avidity  but  the  Washington  poli 
ticians  were  flabbergasted  at  the  audacity  of  a  man 
who  dared  to  print  what  the  press  associations  and 
the  dailies  would  not  touch.  I  do  not  think  there 
can  be  any  doubt  of  the  genuineness  of  Harvey's 
motives  at  this  time.  His  journal  was  rigidly  non- 
partisan.  He  spared  no  one  whom  he  considered  as 
an  encumbrance  in  the  winning  of  the  war. 

The  most  striking  evidence  of  his  attitude  to 
ward  the  Republican  party  at  this  time  is  found  in 
the  edition  of  the  Weekly  of  March  9, 1918.  Will  H. 
Hays  had  just  been  elected  chairman  of  the  Re 
publican  National  Committee.  He  made  a  speech 
extolling  the  virtues  of  his  party.  Of  this  Harvey 
made  a  stinging  analysis  denouncing  Hays  for  in- 

58 


GEORGE  HARVEY 

yoking  partisan  spirit  at  so  perilous  an  hour,  con 
cluding  with  this  paragraph: 

"  As  for  Mr.  Hays,  with  his  insufferable  claptrap 
about  absolute  unity  as  a  blanket  under  which  to 
gather  votes  while  the  very  existence  of  the  nation 
is  threatened  more  ominously  than  anybody  west 
of  the  Alleghanies — or  in  Washington,  for  that 
matter, — seems  to  realize,  the  sooner  he  goes  home 
and  takes  his  damned  old  party  with  him,  the 
better  it  will  be  for  all  creation." 

Surely  no  uncertain  language!  One  might  have 
supposed  that  the  Chairman  of  the  Republican 
Committee  would  have  done  nothing  of  the  kind, 
but  he  did.  Again  the  Harvey  method  was  effec 
tive.  Hays  instead  of  resenting  the  denunciation 
wrote  Harvey  a  rather  abject  letter,  expressing  the 
fear  that  he  might  have  made  a  mistake  in  discuss 
ing  politics  during  the  war  and  asked  for  an 
interview. 

Here  another  Harvey  characteristic  came  into 
play.  He  did  not  assume  the  lofty  role  of  mentor 
or  prophet;  he  very  tactfully  and  gently  tucked  the 
young  Indianian  under  his  wing.  Thenceforth 
there  were  no  more  oratorical  blunders. 

Mr.  Hays  began  to  exhibit  some  capacity  for 

59 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

2eadership ;  his  speeches  improved.  From  that  day 
until  the  election  of  1920  he  never  made  one  with 
out  George  Harvey's  counsel  and  approval. 

This  is  as  typical  of  Harvey  as  his  audacity.  He 
has  a  gentleness  and  charm  quite  unexpected  in  so 
savage  a  commentator.  He  will  discuss  and  advise 
but  he  will  not  argue;  and  all  of  the  time  he  will 
probe  with  uncanny  accuracy  for  the  weaknesses 
of  those  with  whom  he  is  dealing.  It  is  rather  by 
the  weaknesses  of  others  than  by  his  own  strength 
that  he  triumphs. 

Eight  months  after  his  meeting  with  Hays, 
Harvey  came  to  Washington  where  his  shadow 
was  cast  over  the  destinies  of  the  Republican  party, 
which  at  that  time  consisted  of  a  dozen  elements 
with  little  in  common  except  a  hatred  of  Woodrow 
Wilson. 

It  was  an  ideal  situation  for  the  exercise  of  Har 
vey's  peculiar  talents.  He  met  various  factional 
leaders  and  before  many  weeks  his  house  became 
their  rendezvous,  the  G.  H.  Q.  of  the  forces  who 
weie  to  encompass  the  defeat  of  Wilson.  Harvey 
flatteied  and  cajoled  and  counselled,  enjoying  him 
self  immensely  all  of  the  time.  This  diversion  was 
much  more  to  his  liking  than  the  academic  dignity 
of  the  editorship  of  the  North  American  Review. 

60 


GEORGE  HARVEY 

When  President  Wilson  sailed  away  on  his  dis 
astrous  mission  to  Paris,  Harvey's  Weekly  threw 
aside  all  restraint.  It  cut  and  slashed  indiscrimi 
nately  the  President's  policies.  For  the  first  time 
Harvey  took  on  the  guise  of  a  Republican  among 
Republicans.  He  even  aided  and  abetted,  with 
amused  cynicism,  the  groping  and  fumbling  of 
Republican  leaders  who  were  dazzled  at  the  sudden 
break  in  the  political  clouds  which  had  so  long 
enshrouded  them.  He  helped  raise  the  funds  used 
to  counteract  the  league  propaganda  and  toured 
the  country  in  opposition  to  it. 

The  next  shift  in  scenes  was  as  much  beyond  Mr. 
Harvey's  power  of  manipulation  as  it  was  beyond 
most  of  the  Republicans  who  now  sagaciously  give 
the  impression  that  their  hands  weie  on  the  ropes. 
Stories  have  been  told  of  the  great  part  Mr.  Harvey 
played  in  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Harding.  Mr. 
Harvey  did  not  go  to  Chicago  with  the  intention  of 
supporting  Mr.  Harding  any  more  than  any  other 
of  the  candidates,  except  Wood  and  Hiram  John 
son,  whom  he  despised. 

He  and  the  Senate  oligarchy  that  coyly  took  the 
credit  for  nominating  Mr.  Harding  turned  to  him 
when  it  was  manifest  that  the  machinery  was 
stalled.  Mr.  Harding  owes  his  nomination  to  a 

61 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

mob  of  bewildered  delegates.  It  was  not  due  to  a 
wisely  conceived  nor  brilliantly  executed  plan. 

I  doubt  very  much  that  George  Harvey  and 
President  Harding  had  much  in  common  until 
Harvey  was  invited  to  Marion.  At  that  time  the 
"irreconcilables"  were  beginning  to  be  afraid  that 
Elihu  Root  and  William  H.  Taft  were  about  to 
induce  Mr.  Harding  to  accept  a  compromise  on  the 
League  of  Nations.  Harvey  served  the  purpose  of 
restoring  the  equilibrium.  At  the  same  time  it  is 
quite  probable  that  the  President  was  impressed 
by  a  mind  so  much  more  agile  than  his  own.  It  was 
reasonably  certain  that  it  would  not  be  diverted  or 
misled  by  the  intricacies  of  European  diplomacy. 
And  there  was  never  any  doubt  of  Harvey's 
Americanism. 

The  President's  selection  of  Mr.  Harvey  for  the 
London  post  is,  of  course,  accounted  for  in  other 
ways.  There  are  some  persons  who  profess  to 
believe  that  Mr.  Harding  preferred  to  have  the 
militant  editor  in  London  and  his  Weekly  in  the 
grave  rather  than  to  have  him  as  a  censor  of  Wash 
ington  activities  under  the  new  regime.  It  can  be 
said  definitely  that  a  sigh  of  relief  went  up  from 
many  a  Republican  bosom  when  the  sacrilegious 
journal  was  brought  to  a  timely  end.  And  this  did 

62 


GEORGE  HARVEY 

not  happen,  it  is  to  be  observed,  until  the  nomina 
tion  of  George  Harvey  to  the  Court  of  St.  James 
was  duly  ratified  and  approved  by  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States. 

But  if  the  Weekly  has  passed,  the  Republicans 
are  still  acutely  conscious  that  Mr.  Harvey  is 
alive, — has  he  not  reminded  them  of  it  in  his  first 
ambassadorial  utterances? — and  the  journal  is  not 
beyond  resuscitation.  That  is  why  Washington 
does  not  know  whether  to  be  chagrined  or  angry, 
whether  to  disavow  or  to  condone.  The  discom 
fited  Republicans  frankly  do  not  know  what  to 
think  of  it  and  probably  will  not  so  long  as  the 
amazing  ambassador  makes  his  own  rules. 


Harris  and  Ewing 


CHARLES    EVANS    HUGHES 


CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES 

"MAis  resiste-t-on  a'  la  vertu?  Les  gens  qui 
n'eurent  point  de  faiblesses  sont  terribles, "  ob 
served  Sylvestre  Bonnard  of  the  redoubtable 
Therese. 

This  fearsomeness  of  the  good  is  an  old  story. 
Horace  remarked  it,  when,  walking  about  near 
Rome,  pure  of  heart  and  free  from  sin,  he  met  a 
wolf.  The  beast  quailed  before  his  virtue  and  ran 
away, — to  bark  at  the  statue  of  the  she  wolf  giving 
suck  to  Romulus,  by  way  of  intelligent  protest. 

A  similar  prevalence  of  virtue  and  a  similar 
romantic  quality,  where  it  is  least  to  be  expected, 
was  disclosed  in  a  recent  encounter  between  Charles 
Evans  Hughes,  Secretary  of  State,  and  one  of  the 
irreconcilables,  when  Mr.  Hughes,  integer  vitce 
scelerisque  purus  had  just  commissioned  Colonel 
George  Harvey  to  take  the  seat  once  occupied  by 
Woodrow  Wilson  in  the  Supreme  Council. 

When  the  news  of  this  appointment  reached  the 

67 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

Capitol,  Senator  Brandegee,  of  Connecticut,  hurried 
down  to  that  structure  across  the  street  from  the 
White  House  whose  architectural  style  so  markedly 
resembles  the  literary  style  of  President  Harding, 
the  State  War  and  Navy  Building,  official  resi 
dence  of  Mr.  Hughes. 

Harvey  being,  in  a  sort,  Brandegee's  ambassador 
to  the  Court  of  Saint  James,  the  Senator's  object 
was  to  tell  Mr.  Hughes  what  Harvey  should  do  in 
the  Supreme  Council.  Mr.  Brandegee  has  the  gift 
of  direct  and  forceful  speech.  In  his  earnestness,  he 
dispenses  with  the  elegancies  and  amenities.  The 
upper  ranges  of  his  voice  are  not  conciliatory. 

In  this  tone,  he  developed  views  regarding  this 
country's  foreign  relations  with  which  Mr.  Hughes 
could  not  agree.  The  Secretary  of  State  corn- 
batted  the  Senator  from  Connecticut  precisely  as 
he  combats  counsel  of  the  other  side  when  a 
$500,000  fee  is  at  stake.  The  discussion  was  ener 
getic  and  divergent. 

Mr.  Brandegee  hurried  back  to  the  Capitol  and 
summoned  other  senators  to  his  office,  all  those 
who  were  especially  concerned  about  the  exposure 
of  Colonel  Harvey  to  European  entanglements. 

He  was  excited.  His  voice  was  nasal.  His 
language,  in  that  select  gathering,  did  not  have  to 

68 


CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES 

be  parliamentary.  He  told  the  senators  that  they 
could  expect  the  Versailles  treaty  by  the  next  White 
House  messenger;  that  "that  whiskered/ ' — but 
nothing  lies  like  direct  quotes, — that  "that  whisk 
ered"  Secretary  of  State  would  soon  get  us  into  the 
League  of  Nations,  being  able  for  his  purposes  to 
wind  President  Harding  about  his  little  finger! 

His  excitement  in  such  an  emergency  naturally 
communicated  itself  to  his  hearers.  What  to  do? 
It  was  unanimously  decided  that  the  only  adequate 
course  was  for  Senator  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  to 
resign  as  Chairman  of  the  Senate  Foreign  Relations 
Committee,  by  way  of  protest. 

Henry  Cabot  Lodge  running  away  from  his 
chairmanship  would  be  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  be 
having  as  romantically  as  Horace's  wolf.  The  good 
are  terrible,  as  Anatole  France  said  in  the  words 
with  which  this  sketch  begins.  It  is  not  so  much 
that  you  can  not  resist  them,  as  that  they  lead  you 
to  make  such  fools  of  yourselves. 

Mr.  Hughes  prevails,  however,  not  merely  by 
his  virtue,  but  by  his  intelligence.  His  is  the  best 
mind  in  Washington;  to  this  everyone  agrees,  and 
it  is  not  excessive  praise,  for  minds  are  not  common 
in  the  Government. 

Mr.  Harding  has  not  a  remarkable  one,  the 

69 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

people  having  decided  by  seven  million  majority 
that  it  was  best  not  to  have  one  in  the  White  House, 
choosing  instead,  a  good  heart,  excellent  intentions, 
and  reasonable  common  sense.  Mr.  Hoover  has  a 
fine  business  instinct,  great  but  diffused  mental 
energy,  but  hardly  an  organized  mind.  From  this 
point  the  Cabinet  grades  down  to  the  Secretary  of 
Labor,  who,  when  Samuel  Gompers,  Jr.,  his  Chief 
Clerk,  addressed  him  before  visitors  as,  "Mr. 
Secretary/'  said,  "Please  don't  call  me,  'Mr. 
Secretary/  Sam.  Call  me,  'Jim.'  I'm  more  used 
to  it." 

"Call  me  Jim"  is  the  mental  sea  level  of  the 
Administration,  by  which  altitudes  are  measured, 
so  let  us  not  exalt  Mr.  Hughes'  mind  unduly,  but 
merely  indicate  what  its  habits  are.  Its  operations 
were  described  to  me  by  a  member  of  the  Cabinet, 
who  said  that  no  matter  what  subject  was  up  for 
discussion  at  a  Cabinet  meeting,  it  was  always  the 
Secretary  of  State  who  said  the  final  convincing 
word  about  it,  summing  it  all  up,  saying  what 
everyone  else  had  been  trying  to  say  but  no  one 
else  had  entirely  succeeded  in  saying,  simplifying 
it,  and  all  with  an  air  of  service,  not  of  self-asser 
tion. 

Mr.  Harding,  speaking  to  an  intimate  friend, 

70 


CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES 

said  he  had  "two  strong  advisers, — Hughes  and 
Hoover/1 

It  is  a  satisfaction,  even  though  it  is  not  a  de 
light,  to  come  in  contact  with  a  mind  like  Mr. 
Hughes';  it  is  so  definite,  so  hard  and  firm  and 
palpable.  You  feel  sure  that  it  rests  somewhere  on 
the  eternal  verities.  It  is  never  agnostic.  It  has 
none  of  the  malaise  of  the  twentieth  century.  Mr. 
Justice  Brandeis,  when  Mr.  Hughes  was  governor 
of  New  York  and  a  reformer  and  progressive,  said 
of  him,  "His  is  the  most  enlightened  mind  of  the 
eighteenth  century." 

I  think  the  Justice  put  it  a  century  or  two  too 
late,  for  by  the  eighteenth  century  skepticism  had 
begun  to  undermine  those  firm  foundations  of 
belief  which  Mr.  Hughes  still  possesses.  For  him  a 
straight  line  is  the  shortest  distance  between  two 
points, — Einstein  to  the  contrary,  notwithstanding. 

Conclusions  rest  upon  the  absolute  rock  of 
principle,  as  morality  for  his  preacher  father  rested 
upon  the  absolute  rock  of  the  Ten  Commandments. 
There  is  no  doubt,  no  uncertainty,  no  nuance,  no 
on  the  one  hand,  on  the  other,  no  discursiveness, 
no  yielding  to  the  seductions  of  fancy,  but  a  stern 
keeping  of  the  faith  of  the  syllogism;  a  thing  is  so 
or  it  is  not  so.  Mr.  Hughes  never  hesitates.  He 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

never  says,  "I  must  think  about  that."  He  has 
thought  about  it.  Or  he  turns  instantly  to  his 
Principle  and  has  the  answer. 

You  speak  of  Mr.  Hughes  to  ten  men  in  the 
Capitol,  and  nine  of  them  will  say  to  you,  "Of 
course  it  is  easy  to  understand;  his  is  the  one  real 
mind  in  Washington." 

Everyone  is  impressed,  for,  starting  with  no  other 
initiation  into  the  mysteries  of  foreign  relations 
than  having  had  a  father  born  in  Wales  and  having 
spent  his  vacations  in  England,  probably  in  the 
lake  region  studying  the  topography  of  Words 
worth's  poetry, — a  certain  oft  detected  resemblance 
to  Wilson  must  make  Wordsworth  his  favorite 
poet,  as  he  was  Wilson's, — in  ten  days  was  he  not  a 
great  Secretary  of  State;  and  in  three  months  the 
greatest  Secretary  of  State?  To  be  sure,  back  of 
him  was  the  strongest  nation  on  the  earth,  left  so 
by  the  war,  the  one  nation  with  resources,  the 
creditor  of  all  the  others,  to  which  a  successful 
foreign  policy  would  be  naturally  easy  if  it  could 
only  decide  what  that  policy  should  be. 

It  was  left  to  Mr.  Hughes  to  say  what  it  should 
be.  His  discovery  of  the  word  "interests," 
amazed  Washington;  it  was  so  obvious,  so  simple 
that  no  one  else  had  thought  of  it.  Mr.  Hughes' 

72 


CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES 

mind  works  like  that; — hard,  cold,  unemotional, 
not  to  be  turned  aside,  it  simplifies  everything, 
whether  it  be  a  treaty  fight  that  has  confused 
everyone  else  in  the  land,  or  a  rambling  Cabinet 
discussion ;  whether  it  be  the  mess  in  which  the  war 
left  Europe,  or  the  chaos  in  which  watchful  waiting 
left  Mexico.  His  is  a  mind  that  delights  in  formulae. 
He  has  one  for  Europe.  He  has  one  for  Mexico. 
It  is  an  analytical,  not  a  synthetical  mind,  a 
lawyer's  mind,  not  a  creator's,  like  Wilson's,  with, 
perhaps  it  may  turn  out,  a  fatal  habit  of  over 
simplification.  Life  is  not  a  simple  thing  after  all. 

But  effective  simplification  is  instantly  over 
whelming;  and  he  made  his  brief  announcement, 
a  few  days  after  taking  office,  that  the  United 
States  had  won  certain  things  as  a  belligerent,  that 
it  had  not  got  them,  that  he  was  going  after  them, 
that  other  countries  could  expect  nothing  from  us 
until  they  had  recognized  our  rights  and  our  in 
terests;  he  had  completely  routed  the  Senate, 
which  had  been  opposing  Wilson's  ideals  with 
certain  ideals  of  its  own,  pitting  Washington's 
farewell  address  against  "breaking  the  heart  of 
the  world, "  in  a  mussy  statement  of  sentimentality. 

Mr.  Hughes  talked  of  islands  and  oil  and  dollars; 
and  the  country  came  to  its  senses.  Mr.  Wilson 

73 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

had  pictured  us  going  into  world  affairs  as  an  inter 
national  benefactor;  it  was  sobby  and  suggested  a 
strain  on  our  pocketbooks.  The  Senate  had  pic 
tured  us  staying  out  of  them  because  our  fathers 
had  warned  us  to  stay  out  and  because  the  inter 
national  confidence  men  would  cheat  us;  it  was 
Sunday-school-booky  and  unflattering.  Mr. 
Hughes  said  we  should  go  in  to  the  extent  of  ob 
taining  what  was  ours,  and  that  we  should  stay 
out  to  the  extent  of  keeping  the  others  from  obtain 
ing  what  certainly  was  not  theirs.  It  sounded 
grown-up;  as  a  Nation  we  belonged  not  to  the  sob- 
sisterhood,  neither  were  we  tied  to  the  apronstring 
of  the  Mothers  of  the  Constitution. 

Our  national  self-respect  was  restored.  Truly, 
it  required  a  mind  to  discover  "interests"  in  the 
cloud  of  words  that  Mr.  Wilson  and  the  Senate  had 
raised.  Of  course,  it  is  all  clear  now,  when  every 
body  scorns  idealism  and  talks  glibly  of  interests. 
"Hobbs  hints  blue,  straight  he  turtle  eats;  Nobbs 
prints  blue,  claret  crowns  his  cup."  But  it  was 
Hughes  who  "fished  the  murex  up,"  who  pulled 
"interests"  out  of  the  deep  blue  sea  of  verbal 
fuddlement. 

And  thinking  of  our  dollars,  thanks  to  Mr. 
Hughes,  we  are  made  sane  and  whole,  clearsighted 

74 


CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES 

and  unafraid,  standing  erect  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth  asking  lustily  for  Yap. 

Our  foreign  relations  had  been  the  subject  of 
passion.  Mr.  Hughes  made  them  the  subject  of 
reason.  Mr.  Wilson  could  think  of  nothing  but  his 
hatred  of  Lodge,  which  rendered  an  agreement 
with  the  Senate  impossible,  and  his  hatred  of  Lloyd 
George  and  Marshal  Foch,  which  rendered  coopera 
tion  with  the  Allies  and  through  it  achievements 
in  the  foreign  field  that  would  have  reconciled  the 
public  to  his  policies,  equally  impossible. 

Mr.  Hughes  looked  at  his  task  objectively.  He 
saw  the  power  of  the  United  States.  He  saw  how 
easy  it  was  to  exert  that  power  diplomatically.  He 
saw  the  simple  and  immediate  concerns  of  the 
United  States.  Foch  says  that  he  won  the  war, 
"by  smoking  his  pipe,"  meaning  by  keeping  cool 
and  regarding  his  means  and  ends  with  the  same 
detachment  with  which  he  would  study  an  old 
campaign  of  Napoleon.  I  do  not  know  on  what 
sedative  Mr.  Hughes  wins  his  diplomatic  victories, 
as  he  does  not  smoke  a  pipe; — perhaps  by  reading 
the  Sunday  School  Times.  But  like  the  French 
Marshal,  he  knows  the  secret  of  keeping  his  head. 
It  is  a  great  quality  of  mind  not  to  lose  it  when  you 
most  need  it.  Mr.  Hughes  has  it.  Perhaps  this  is 

75 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

why  Washington  remarks  his  mind;  he  always  has 
it  with  him. 

"I  am  not  thinking  of  myself  in  my  work  here, " 
he  said  once.  "I  don't  care  about  immediate 
acclaim.  I  am  counsel  for  the  people  of  this  coun 
try.  If  a  generation  from  now  they  think  their 
interests  have  been  well  represented,  that  will  be 
enough/1 

He  is  coldly  objective. 

Mr.  Hughes  comes  by  his  coolness  naturally. 
He  was  born  to  it,  which  is  the  surest  way  to  come 
by  anything.  Men  have  hated  him  for  it,  coolness 
being  a  disconcerting  quality,  ever  since  he  emerged 
from  obscurity  in  New  York  during  the  insurance 
investigation,  calling  it  his  "  coldness  "  and  adding 
by  way  of  good  measure  the  further  specification, 
his  "selfishness/1 

If  the  last  characterization  is  to  stand,  it  should 
be  amended  to  read,  his  "enlightened  selfishness/ ' 
He  has  a  good  eye  for  his  own  interests.  Roosevelt 
disliked  him  for  it,  because  when  governor  and 
again  when  candidate  for  president,  he  refused  to 
gravitate  into  the  Roosevelt  solar  system,  taking 
up  his  orbit  like  the  rest  of  them  about  the  Colonel. 
But  think  what  happened  to  that  system  when  the 
gre*t  sun  of  it  went  out ! 

76 


CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES 

His  political  associates  in  New  York  hated  him, 
accused  him  of  being  "for  nothing  but  Hughes, " 
when  he  quit  them  in  the  fight ' '  to  hand  the  govern 
ment  back  to  the  people"  and  went,  on  the  invita 
tion  of  President  Taft,  upon  the  Supreme  Bench. 
But  it  was  his  only  way  out.  If  he  had  gone  on 
working  with  them,  he  would  still  be  "handing  the 
government  back  to  the  people  "  along  with, — but 
who  were  the  great  figures  of  1910?  He  knows  an 
expiring  issue  and  its  embarrassments  by  an  un 
erring  instinct.  He  finds  a  new  one,  such  as  "our 
national  interests, "  with  as  sure  a  sense. 

It  is  worth  while  casting  a  glance  at  him  "smok 
ing  his  pipe,"  when  other  real  and  false  oppor 
tunities  presented  themselves  to  him;  one  finds 
discrimination.  He  refuses  a  Republican  nomina 
tion  for  Mayor  of  New  York  City  when  there  is  not 
a  chance  of  electing  a  Republican  Mayor  of  New 
York  City.  He  accepts  a  Republican  nomination 
for  Governor  of  New  York  State,  when  the  putting 
up  of  Hearst  as  the  Democratic  candidate  makes 
the  election  of  a  Republican  as  Governor  of  New 
York  State  morally  certain.  He  refuses  the  Re 
publican  nomination  for  President,  in  1912,  when 
another,  viewing  himself  and  his  party  less  objec 
tively,  through  vanity  perhaps,  might  have  be* 

77 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

lieved  that  his  own  nomination  was  the  one  thing 
needed  to  prevent  that  year's  Republican  cata 
clysm.  Four  years  later  he  accepts  the  Republican 
nomination  for  President,  when  as  the  result 
showed,  there  is  at  least  a  reasonable  chance  to  win. 
He  takes  the  post  of  Secretary  of  State  when  neg 
lected  opportunities  lie  ready  to  his  hand  and  when 
the  force  of  world  events  requires  little  more  than 
his  intelligent  acquiescence  to  bring  him  diplo 
matic  success. 

His  discovery  of  "interests"  was  no  accident. 
It  sprang  from  that  hard  unemotional  simplifying 
habit  of  his  mind. 

When  one  writes  of  Mr.  Hughes,  men  ask,  pardon 
ably,  "  Which  Mr.  Hughes?  The  old  Mr.  Hughes, 
or  the  new  Mr.  Hughes?"  for  he  has  had,  as  the 
literary  critics  would  say,  his  earlier  and  his  later 
manner. 

But  it  is  chiefly  manner,  a  smile  recently 
achieved,  a  different  way  of  wearing  the  beard,  a 
little  less  of  the  stern  moralist,  a  little  more  of  the 
man  of  the  world.  A  connoisseur  of  Hughes,  who 
has  studied  him  for  nearly  twenty  years,  after  a 
recent  observation,  pronounced  judgment:  "It's 
the  same  Hughes,  a  trifle  less  cold,  but  just  as  dry." 
And  the  Secretary  of  State  himself,  when  one  of  the 

78 


CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES 

weeklies  contained  an  article  on  "The  New  Mr. 
Hughes,"  remarked,  "People  did  not  understand 
me  then,  that  is  all." 

These  two  eminent  authorities  being  substan 
tially  agreed  for  the  first  time  during  many  diver 
gent  years,  there  must  be  something  in  it.  Mr. 
Hughes  must  be  a  gradually  emerging  personality. 
You  take  that  new  warmth,  recently  detected ;  Mr. 
Hughes  himself  knows  it  was  always  there.  It  is 
like  the  light  ray  of  a  star  which  has  needed  a 
million  years  to  reach  the  earth ;  it  was  always  there 
but  it  required  a  long  time  to  get  across. 

Then  the  beard: — when  Mr.  Hughes  was  "hand 
ing  the  government  back  to  the  people"  in  New 
York,  it  was  a  preacher's  beard;  you  might  have 
encountered  its  like  anywhere  among  the  circuit 
riders.  Now  it  is  a  foreign  secretary's  beard;  you 
might  encounter  it  in  any  European  capital, — a 
world  statesman's  beard.  The  change  of  beard 
reveals  the  smile,  which  was  probably  always  there, 
and  the  splendid  large  teeth.  The  nose,  standing 
out  in  bolder  relief,  is  handsomer  and  more  dis 
tinguished.  You  see  more  of  Mr.  Hughes  than  you 
used  to  and  you  gain  by  the  improved  vision. 

Something  has  dropped  from  him,  however, 
beside  the  ends  of  the  whiskers.  I  met  him  first 

79 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

when  he  was  about  to  run  for  President  in  1916. 
An  icy  veil,  like  frozen  mist,  seemed  to  hang  be 
tween  us.  We  talked  through  it  ineffectively. 
When  I  saw  him  again  as  Secretary  of  State,  that 
chill  barrier  had  fallen  away;  to  recur  to  my  figure, 
he  gradually  emerges. 

Mr.  Hughes  of  the  later  manner  is,  however,  I 
am  persuaded  after  long  familiarity  with  his  career, 
more  truly  Hughesian  than  the  Hughes  of  the 
earlier  manner;  just  as  the  Henry  James  of  the  later 
manner  is  more  explicitly  Jamesian  than  the  James 
of  the  earlier  manner,  and  the  Cabot  Lodge  of  the 
present  is  much  more  irretrievably  Cabotian  than 
the  Cabot  Lodge  who  years  ago  stood  with  reluc 
tant  feet  where  the  twin  paths  of  scholarship  and 
politics  meet, — and  part. 

I  should  say  that  Mr.  Hughes  was  Bryan  plus 
the  advantages,  which  Mr.  Bryan  never  enjoyed, 
of  a  correct  Republican  upbringing  and  a  mind. 
The  Republican  upbringing  and  the  mind  have 
come  of  late  years  to  preponderate.  Looking  at 
Mr.  Hughes  to-day,  you  could  not  tell  him  from  a 
Republican,  except  perhaps  by  his  mind,  though 
such  esoteric  Republicans  as  Brandegee,  Cabot 
Lodge,  and  Knox  profess  an  ability  to  distinguish, 

But  when  he  was  "  handing  the  government  back 

80 


CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES 

to  the  people "  in  New  York,  there  was  too  much 
Bryan  about  him.  The  Republicans  would  have 
none  of  him,  except  as  a  choice  of  evils, — the 
greater  evil  being  defeat.  They  called  him  ribald 
names.  They  referred  to  him  scornfully  as ' '  Wilson 
with  whiskers,'*  when  they  ran  him,  reluctantly, 
for  the  Presidency  in  1916.  His  opponent  being 
also  of  the  Bryan  school,  and  a  minister's  son  at 
that,  Hughes  striving  for  an  issue,  failed  to  make  it 
clear  which  was  which,  a  doubt  that  remained  until 
the  last  vote  from  California  was  finally  counted 
after  the  election.  This  was  the  Mr.  Hughes  of 
the  earlier  manner. 

Latterly,  Mr.  Hughes  has  succeeded  in  estab 
lishing  the  distinction  which  he  did  not  succeed  in 
making  during  that  campaign.  When  he  con 
fronted  the  task  of  Secretary  of  State,  he  carefully 
studied  the  international  career  of  Woodrow  Wil 
son,  as  a  sort  of  inversie  Napoleon,  a  sort  of  diplo 
matic  bad  example. 

"This,"  he  said  to  himself,  "was  a  mistake  of 
Wilson, "  and  he  noted  it.  "And  this, "  he  observed 
thoughtfully,  "was  another  mistake  of  Wilson.  I 
shall  avoid  it. "  "This, "  he  again  impressed  on  his 
memory,  "was  where  Lloyd  George  and  Clemen- 
ceau  trapped  him.  I  shall  keep  out  of  that  pit." 

6  81 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

His  head,  like  a  book  of  etiquette,  is  full  of 
"Don'ts,"  diplomatic  "Don'ts,"  all  deduced  from 
the  experience  of  Wilson. 

The  former  President  met  Europe  face  to  face. 
Mr.  Hughes  thanks  his  stars  for  the  breadth  of  the 
Atlantic.  The  former  President  put  his  League  of 
Nations  first  on  his  program.  Mr.  Hughes  puts  his 
League  of  Nations  last,  to  be  set  up  after  every 
other  question  is  settled. 

The  former  President  tried  to  sell  the  Country 
pure  idealism.  Now  as  a  people  we  have  the  habit 
of  wars  in  which  we  seek  nothing,  but  after  which, 
in  spite  of  ourselves,  a  little  territory,  a  few  islands, 
or  a  region  out  of  which  we  subsequently  carve 
half  a  dozen  States,  is  found  adhering  to  us.  Mr. 
Wilson  offered  us  a  war  in  which,  of  course,  we 
sought  nothing  and  found,  at  the  end  of  it,  not  the 
customary  few  trifles  of  territory,  but  the  whole 
embarrassing,  beggarly  world  adhering  to  us.  The 
thumbscrew  and  the  rack  could  not  wring  from  Mr. 
Hughes  the  admission  that  we  are  after  anything 
more  lofty  than  our  interests. 

One  of  the  present  Secretary's  "Don'ts"  of 
similar  derivation  is  "Don't  have  a  fight  with  the 
Senate  unless  you  make  sure  first  that  you  have  the 
public  with  you." 

82 


CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES 

Mr.  Hughes  does  not  run  away  from  fights;  he 
likes  them.  But  believing  God  to  be  on  the  side 
with  the  most  battalions,  and  intending  scrupu 
lously  to  observe  this  last  "Don't,"  in  order  to 
secure  the  necessary  popular  support,  he  is  as 
Secretary  of  State,  "handing  the  government  back 
to  the  people, "  just  as  he  did  when  governor, — a 
little  less  self-consciously,  perhaps,  a  little  less 
noisily,  but  still  none  the  less  truly. 

He  is  the  most  democratic  Secretary  of  State  this 
Country  has  ever  had,  and  this  includes  Bryan  to 
whose  school,  as  has  just  been  remarked,  he  origi 
nally  belonged.  If  we  are  ever  to  have  democratic 
control  of  foreign  relations,  it  will  be  by  th?  meth 
ods  of  Mr.  Hughes,  because  of  the  training  and 
beliefs  of  Mr.  Hughes,  and  as  a  consequence  of  the 
most  undemocratic  control  of  foreign  relations 
which  our  Constitution  attempted  to  fasten  upon 
us. 

A  successful  foreign  policy  requires  public  under 
standing  and  support.  The  makers  of  the  Con 
stitution  established  in  our  government  a  nice 
balance  of  powers  between  the  various  depart 
ments,  beautifully  adjusted  until  someone  thought 
of  putting  a  stone  into  one  side  of  the  balance. 
That  stone  is  the  people.  The  Fathers  of  the  Con- 

83 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

stitution  had  not  noticed  it.  The  executive  put  it 
into  its  end  of  the  balance  some  years  ago,  and 
the  legislative  has  been  kicking  the  beam  ever 
since.  One  nice  bit  of  balancing  was  that  between 
the  Senate  and  the  Executive  on  treaty  making. 
In  foreign  relations,  the  President  can  do  every 
thing,  and  he  can  do  nothing  without  the  approval 
of  two  thirds  of  the  Senate.  It  is  a  nice  balance, 
which  broke  the  heart  of  John  Hay,  frittered  away 
the  sentimentalities  of  Mr.  Bryan,  and  destroyed 
Mr.  Wilson. 

No  one  ever  thought  of  putting  the  stone  into  it 
until  the  Senate  did  so  two  years  ago,  by  discussing 
the  Versailles  treaty  in  the  open,  right  before  the 
public.  The  people  got  into  the  scale,  and  Mr. 
Wilson  hit  the  sky. 

Mr.  Hughes  observed  what  happened.  He  is 
determined  that  the  stone  this  time  shall  go  in  on 
his  end  of  the  balance.  He  talks  to  the  country 
daily.  He  takes  the  people  into  his  confidence, 
telling  all  that  can  be  told  and  as  soon  as  it  can  be 
told.  He  makes  foreign  relations  hold  front  pages 
with  the  Stillman  divorce  case.  He  makes  no  step 
without  carrying  the  country  with  him.  He  comes 
as  near  conducting  a  daily  referendum  on  what  we 
shall  do  for  our  "interests "  as  in  a  country  so  big  as 

84 


CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES 

ours  can  be  done;  and  that  is  democratic  control  of 
foreign  relations,  initiated  by  the  Senate,  for  its 
own  undoing. 

Into  that  balance  where  he  is  placing  the  stone, 
he  will  put  more  of  mankind's  destinies  than  any 
other  man  on  earth  holds  in  his  hands  to-day.  His 
has  been  a  long  way  up  from  the  shy,  sensitive 
youth  that  one  who  knew  him  when  he  was  be 
ginning  the  law  describes  to  me.  He  was  then  un 
imaginably  awkward,  incapable  of  unbending,  a 
wet  blanket  socially.  An  immense  effort  of  will  has 
gone  into  fashioning  the  agreeable  and  habitual 
diner-out  of  to-day,  into  profiting  by  the  mistakes 
of  the  New  York  governorship,  of  the  campaign  of 
1916. 

One  sees  still  the  traces  of  the  early  stiffness ;  the 
face  is  sensitive;  the  eyes  drop,  seldom  meeting 
yours  squarely;  when  they  do,  they  are  the  mild 
eyes  of  the  Church !  I  suppose  the  early  experiences 
of  the  Church  help  him. 

His  attitude  toward  Colonel  Harvey's  and  other 
of  the  President's  diplomatic  appointments  takes 
its  color  from  his  good  father's  attitude  toward  the 
problem  of  evil.  God  put  evil  in  the  world,  and  it 
is  not  for  man  to  question.  The  President  sends  the 
Harvey s  abroad;  they  are  not  Mr.  Hughes',  but 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

his  own  personal  representatives.    It  is  not  for  Mr. 
Hughes  to  question. 

He  grows  a  better  Republican  every  day.  And 
the  Republicans  of  the  Senate  are  not  reconciled. 
They  feel  like  the  man  who  saw  the  hippopotamus: 

If  he  should  stay  to  tea,  I  thought, 
There  won't  be  much  for  us. 

There  won't  be  much  for  them.  Enthusiasm 
grows  among  them  over  his  admirable  fitness  for 
reinterment  on  the  Supreme  Bench. 


EDWARD    MANDELL   HOUSE1 


EDWARD   M.   HOUSE 

THE  nature  of  Colonel  Edward  M.  House  was 
fully  revealed  by  a  story  of  his  youth,  which  he 
told  me  at  Paris  in  the  concluding  moments  of  the 
Peace  Conference.  He  was  elated  and  confident. 
The  compromises  in  which  he  delighted  had  been 
made.  The  gifts  had  all  been  bestowed — of  terri 
tory  which  men  will  have  to  fight  for  to  keep,  of 
reparations  which  will  never  be  paid,  of  alliances 
which  will  never  be  carried  out,  of  a  League  of 
Nations  which  the  Colonel's  own  Nation  will 
never  enter. 

Looking  the  work  over  with  that  blindness  with 
which  men  are  struck  who  are  under  the  dominion 
of  another  and  stronger  man's  mind,  his  gentle 
soul  was  flooded  with  happiness.  He  was  as 
near  boasting  as  one  of  his  modest  habits  could  be, 
as  his  mind  turned  to  the  wisdom  of  his  youth 
which  had  brought  forth  this  excellent  fruit. 

"I  got  my  first  real  sight  of  politics,"  he  said, 

8g 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

11  when  I  was  a  boy  in  Cornell  University.  My 
great  chum  there  was  young  Morton,  a  son  of  the 
Republican  war  governor  of  Indiana.  The  Hayes- 
Tilden  contest  over  the  Presidency  was  being  de 
cided.  Morton  and  I  used  to  run  away  from 
Ithaca  to  Washington  during  that  absorbing  fight. 
By  reason  of  his  father 's  position  in  the  Democratic 
party,  he  could  get  in  behind  the  scenes  as  few 
young  men  could;  and  he  took  me  with  him.  I 
saw  the  whole  amazing  thing.  I  made  up  my 
mind  then  and  there  that  only  three  or  four  men 
in  this  country  counted,  and  that  there  was  little 
chance  of  rising  to  be  one  of  those  three  or  four  by 
the  ordinary  methods/1 

He  was,  when  he  said  this,  at  the  apex  of  his 
career,  behind  the  scenes  of  the  greatest  World 
Congress  ever  held,  following  the  greatest  War  the 
world  had  ever  known .  And  he  had  been  behind  the 
scenes  as  had  no  other  man,  in  Europe  as  a  privi 
leged  onlooker  with  both  belligerents,  and  in 
America  as  the  confidant  of  tremendous  events. 

He  was  there,  as  in  his  college  days,  at  the  Hayes- 
Tilden  contest,  by  grace  of  a  friend  whose  influence 
had  been  sufficient  to  secure  him  his  opportunities. 
The  parallel  was  in  his  mind,  and  he  regarded  it 
with  self -approval.  He  had  chosen  his  course  and 

90 


EDWARD  M.  HOUSE 

chosen  it  wisely.  It  had  led  him  to  the  greatest 
peace-making  in  history. 

There  was  a  little  more  self -revelation.  He  and 
Morton  had  prepared  for  college  with  Yale  in  view. 
But  Morton  had  flunked  his  entrance  examina 
tions  at  Yale  and  afterward  succeeded  in  passing 
the  Cornell  tests.  House  had  gone  to  Cornell  to  be 
with  his  friend,  an  early  indication  of  a  capacity 
for  self-effacement,  for  attachment  to  the  nearest 
great  man  at  hand  who  could  take  him  behind  the 
scenes. 

The  mystery  of  Colonel  House  is  that  he  has  been 
possessed  all  his  life,  almost  passionately,  with 
that  instinct  which  makes  boys  run  to  fires.  His 
fastening  upon  the  favorably  placed,  whether  it 
was  Morton  in  his  youth,  or  Wilson  in  his  maturity, 
was  not  ordinary  self -seeking,  not  having  for  its 
object  riches  or  power  or  influence.  It  was  merely 
desire  to  see  for  the  pure  love  of  seeing. 

His  is  a  boundless  curiosity  about  both  men  and 
events.  His  eyes  are  the  clue  to  his  character. 
Boardman  Robinson,  with  the  caricaturist's  gift 
for  catching  that  feature  which  exhibits  character, 
said  to  me  one  day  during  the  War,  "I  just  passed 
Colonel  House  on  the  street.  The  most  wonder 
ful  seeing  eyes  I  ever  saw!" 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

Nature  had  made  Colonel  House  all  eyes- 
trivial  in  figure,  undistinguished,  slightly  ludicrous, 
almost  shambling,  shrinking  under  observation  so 
that  he  gained  a  reputation  for  mystery,  with  only 
one  feature  to  catch  your  attention,  a  most  amaz 
ingly  fine  pair  of  eyes.  It  was  as  if  nature  had 
concentrated  on  those  eyes,  treating  all  the  puny 
rest  of  him  with  careless  indifference.  They  are 
eyes  that  delight  in  seeing,  eyes  to  seek  a  place 
in  the  first  row  of  the  grand  stand  of  world  events, 
eyes  that  turn  steadily  outward  upon  objective 
reality.  Not  the  eyes  of  a  visionary — House  got 
his  visions  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  and  the  rest 
of  it  at  second-hand  from  Wilson — eyes  that  glow 
not  with  the  internal  fires  of  a  great  soul,  but  with 
the  intoxication  of  the  spectacle. 

And  with  the  eyes  nature  had  given  House  an 
unerring  instinct  for  getting  where,  with  his  small 
figure,  he  could  see.  The  ego  of  the  passionate 
spectator  is  as  peculiar  as  that  of  the  book  col 
lector  or  the  curiosity  hunter.  Given  a  shoulder 
tall  enough  the  diminutive  House  perches  upon 
it,  like  a  small  boy  watching  a  circus  parade  from 
his  father's  broad  back,  whether  the  shoulder  be 
Morton's  in  his  youth,  or  Wilson's  in  his  maturity. 

Some  have  tried  to  explain  House  by  saying  that 


EDWARD  M.  HOUSE 

he  had  the  vanity  of  loving  familiarity  with  the 
great;  but  I  doubt  if  House  cared  for  kings,  as 
kings,  any  more  than  a  bibliomaniac  cares  for  jade, 
He  wanted  to  see;  and  kings  were  merely  tall  ob 
jects  on  which  to  perch  and  regard  the  spectacle. 

He  remained  simple  and  unaffected  by  his  con 
tacts  with  Europe,  did  none  of  the  vulgar  aping  of 
the  toady,  coming  away  from  the  Peace  Confer 
ence  an  unconscious  provincial,  who  said  "Eye- 
talian"  in  the  comic-paper  way,  and  Fiume  pro 
nouncing  the  first  syllable  as  if  he  were  exclaiming 
"Fie!  for  shaine!" — an  unspoiled  Texan  who  must 
have  cared  as  little  what  kings  and  potentates 
thought  of  him  as  a  newsboy  watching  a  baseball 
game  cares  for  the  accidental  company  of  a  bank 
president. 

The  world  has  been  good  to  Colonel  House,  ac 
cording  to  his  standards.  He  has  realized  his  am 
bition  to  the  fullest.  Life  has  given  him  all  he 
wanted,  the  privilege  of  seeing,  more  abundantly 
than  to  any  other  in  his  generation,  perhaps  in  all 
time;  for  he  is  history 's  greatest  spectator. 

He  is  glad.  His  heart  is  full.  He  wishes  to 
give  in  return.  He  is  the  kindest-hearted  man 
who  has  ever  had  empires  at  his  disposal.  He 
wants  to  give,  give,  give.  He  wants  to  make 

93 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

happy.  He  was  the  fairy  godmother  of  Europe, 
the  diplomatic  Carnegie,  who  thought  it  a  disgrace 
to  die  diplomatically  rich. 

For  many  months  I  saw  him  almost  daily  at 
Paris.  His  was  a  heart  of  gold,  whether  in  personal 
or  international  relations ;  but  a  heart  of  gold  does 
not  make  a  great  negotiator.  Perverse  and  na 
tionalistic  races  of  men,  incredulous  of  the  mil- 
lenium,  keep  their  hearts  of  gold  at  home  when 
they  go  out  to  deal  with  their  neighbors. 

It  was  difficult  for  Colonel  House  to  say  no. 
He  might  go  so  far  as  to  utter  the  first  letter  of  that 
indispensable  monosyllable;  but  before  he  accom 
plished  the  vowel,  his  mind  would  turn  to  some 
happy  "  formula "  passing  midway  between  no 
and  yes.  He  was  fertile  in  these  expedients.  Daily 
he  would  talk  of  some  new  "formula,"  for  Fiume, 
for  Dantzig,  for  the  Saar  Valley,  for  the  occupation 
of  the  Rhine,  for  Shantung,  always  happily,  al 
ways  hopefully.  The  amiable  William  Allen  White 
hit  off  his  disposition  perfectly  when  he  said 
House's  daily  prayer  was,  "Give  us  this  day  our 
daily  compromise." 

Wh?n  he  split  a  hair  between  the  south  and 
southwest  side,  it  was  not  for  logistic  pleasure;  it 
was  to  divide  it  with  splendid  justice  and  send 

94 


EDWARD  M.  HOUSE 

each  of  two  rival  claimants  away  happy  in  the  pos 
session  of  exactly  half  of  the  slender  filament,  so 
that  neither  would  be  empty  handed.  I  never  saw 
a  man  so  overjoyed  as  he  was  one  day  late  in  April 
or  early  in  May  when  M.  Clemenceau  had  left  his 
rooms  in  the  Hotel  Crillon  with  the  promise  of 
Franco- American  defensive  alliance. 

"The  old  man,"  he  said,  "is  very  happy.  He 
has  got  what  he  has  been  after.  I  can't  tell  you 
just  now  what  it  is.  But  he  has  got  it  at  last." 

He  had  been  the  donor,  for  Mr.  Wilson,  of  the 
exact  southwest  side  of  a  hair,  the  promise  to  sub 
mit,  without  recommendations,  an  alliance  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  which  had  little  prospect  of 
ever  being  accepted  by  this  country.  The  sight 
of  the  French  Premier's  happiness  made  him 
radiant. 

It  was  not  merely  because  representatives  of 
foreign  governments  found  Colonel  House  easy  to 
see  when  they  could  not  gain  access  to  President 
Wilson  that  kept  a  throng  running  to  his  quarters 
in  the  Crillon;  it  was  because  there  they  found  the 
line  of  least  resistance.  There  was  the  readiest 
sympathy.  There  was  the  greatest  desire  to 
accommodate.  He  sought  always  for  a  formula 
that  would  satisfy  the  claims  of  all. 

95 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

A  man  so  ready  to  compromise  is  actuated  by  no 
guiding  principle.  Mr.  Scott,  the  editor  of  the 
Manchester  Guardian,  said  when  President  Wilson 
was  in  England;  "Yes,  Lloyd  George  is  honestly 
for  the  League  of  Nations.  But  that  won't  pre 
vent  him  from  doing  things  at  Paris  which  will  be 
utterly  inconsistent  with  the  principle  of  such  a 
league.  It  isn't  intellectual  dishonesty;  but  Lloyd 
George  hasn't  a  logical  mind.  He  doesn't  tinder- 
stand  the  implications  of  his  own  position." 

Neither  did  Colonel  House  at  Paris.  The 
League  of  Nations  was  an  emotion  with  him,  not  a 
principle.  It  was  a  tremendous  emotion.  He 
spoke  of  it  in  a  voice  that  almost  broke.  I  remem 
ber  his  glowing  eyes  and  the  little  catch  in  his 
throat  as  he  said,  at  Paris,  "The  politicians  don't 
like  the  League  of  Nations.  And  if  they  really 
knew  what  it  would  do  to  them,  they  would  like  it 
still  less." 

But,  for  all  that  naive  faith  in  the  wonders  it 
would  do,  Colonel  House  had  not  thought  out  the 
League  of  Nations,  and  was  quite  incapable  of 
thinking  it  out,  for  he  is  not  a  man  of  analytical 
mind ;  and  what  mental  power  he  had  was  inhibited 
by  the  glow  of  his  feelings.  His  temperature  was 
above  the  thinking  point.  Thus,  like  Mr.  Lloyd 

96 


EDWARD  M.  HOUSE 

George,  he  could  make  compromises  that  played 
ducks  and  drakes  with  his  general  position,  since 
he  had  no  real  understanding  of  the  League,  which 
was  not  an  intellectual  conviction  with  him,  ardu 
ously  arrived  at,  but  which  possessed  his  soul  as 
by  an  act  of  grace,  like  an  old-fashioned  religious 
conversion. 

He  was  loyal  at  heart  to  Mr.  Wilson  and  to 
everything  that  was  Mr.  Wilson's,  his  mind  being 
absorbed  into  Mr.  Wilson's,  and  having  no  inde 
pendent  existence.  There  are  natures  which  de 
mand  an  utter  and  unquestioning  loyalty  in  those  to 
whom  they  yield  their  confidence,  and  Mr.  Wilson's 
was  of  that  sort,  as  a  remark  of  his  about  Secretary 
Colby  will  indicate. 

When  Mr.  Lansing  was  removed  from  office,  the 
country  was  astounded  to  learn  that  he  was  to  be 
succeeded  by  Bainbridge  Colby.  The  President 
communicated  his  decision  first  to  one  of  the  few 
who  then  had  access  to  his  sick  room.  This  ad 
viser  ventured  to  expostulate. 

"Mr.  Colby,"  he  said,  "is  brilliant,  but  he  is 
uncertain.  His  whole  career  has  lacked  stability. 
He  is  not  known  to  have  the  qualities  which  the 
Nation  has  been  taught  to  expect  in  a  Secretary  of 
State." 

7  97 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

"At  any  rate,"  replied  the  President  sharply, 
"he  is  loyal." 

At  any  rate,  Colonel  House  was  loyal. 

The  ego  of  Mr.  Wilson  demanded  and  received 
utter  loyalty  from  him,  a  loyalty  that  forbade 
thinking,  forbade  criticism,  forbade  independence 
of  any  sort.  Moreover,  Colonel  House  was  in 
contact  with  a  mind  much  stronger  than  his,  with  a 
personality  much  more  powerful  than  his.  He  was 
caught  into  the  Wilson  orbit.  He  revolved  about 
Mr.  Wilson.  He  got  his  light  from  Mr.  Wilson, 
who  had  that  power,  which  Colonel  Roosevelt  had, 
of  irradiating  minor  personalities.  Colonel  House 
was  nothing  until  he  gravitated  to  Mr.  Wilson. 
He  is  going  back  to  be  nothing  to-day,  nothing  but 
a  kind,  lovable  man,  a  gentle  soul  rather  unfitted 
for  the  world,  with  an  extraordinary  capacity  for 
friendship  and  sympathy,  and  that  fine  pair  of 
eyes. 

I  remember  at  Paris  the  affecting  evidences  of 
the  little  man's  loyalty  to  his  great  friend,  of  whom 
he  could  not  speak  without  emotion.  He  was 
never  tired  of  dilating  upon  the  wonder  of  President 
Wilson's  mind. 

"I  never  saw,"  he  would  say,  "so  quick  a  mind, 
with  such  a  capacity  for  instant  understanding. 

98 


EDWARD  M.  HOUSE 

The  President  can  go  to  the  bottom  of  the  most 
difficult  question  as  no  one  else  in  the  world  can." 

House's  endless  "formulas"  always  bore  the 
self-effacing  condition,  "if  Mr.  Wilson  approves." 
"  If  Mr.  Wilson  approves  "  was  the  D.  V.  of  Colonel 
House's  religion.  Too  much  awe  of  another  mind 
is  not  good  for  your  own,  or  carries  with  it  certain 
implications  about  your  own. 

Colonel  House's  loyalty  to  Mr.  Wilson  did  not, 
however,  make  him  hate  the  men  at  Paris  who 
stood  across  the  President's  path.  The  personal 
representative's  heart  was  too  catholic  for  that. 
He 

Liked  what  e're  he  looked  on 
And  his  looks  went  everywhere. 

He  had  a  kindly  feeling  for  the  "old  man," 
Clemenceau.  He  was  a  warm  friend  of  Orlando, 
with  whom  Mr.  Wilson  had  his  quarrel  over 
Fiume.  He  thought  well  of  Lloyd  George,  whom 
Mr.  Wilson  went  abroad  hating. 

The  Peace  Conference  was  to  him  a  personal 
problem.  Peace  was  peace  between  Wilson  and 
Clemenceau  and  Lloyd  George  and  Orlando.  Com 
promises  were  an  accommodation  among  friends. 

99 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

I  never  saw  a  man  so  utterly  distressed  as  he  was 
when  President  Wilson  threatened  to  break  up  the 
Peace  Conference  and  sent  for  the  George  Washing 
ton  to  take  him  home  from  Brest.  It  was  as  if  his 
own  dearest  friends  had  become  involved  in  a  violent 
quarrel.  He  did  not  see  the  incident  in  terms  of 
the  principles  involved,  but  only  as  the  painful 
interruption  of  kindly  personal  relations.  Men 
speak  of  him  sometimes  as  the  one  of  our  commis 
sioners  who  knew  Europe;  and  Europeans,  appre 
ciating  his  sympathy,  have  fostered  this  idea  by  re 
ferring  to  his  understanding  of  European  problems. 

But  the  Europe  Colonel  House  knew  was  a  per 
sonal  Europe.  The  countries  on  his  map  were 
Lloyd  George,  Clemenceau,  and  Orlando.  The 
problems  of  his  Europe  were  Lloyd  George, 
Clemenceau,  and  Orlando.  He  knew  what  Lloyd 
George  wanted.  He  knew  what  Clemenceau 
wanted.  He  knew  what  Orlando  wanted.  That 
was  enough. 

His  kindness  of  heart,  his  desire  for  pleasant  per 
sonal  relations,  his  incapacity  to  think  in  terms  of 
principles,  whether  of  the  League  of  Nations  or  not, 
betrayed  him  in  the  matter  of  Shantung.  Whether 
the  Peace  Conference  should  return  Shantung  to 
China,  or  leave  it  to  Japan  to  return  to  China  was 

100 


EDWARD  M.  HOUSE 

to  him,  he  often  said,  "only  a  question  of  method 
There  is  no  principle  involved. "  The  Japanese 
were  a  sensitive  people,  why  should  a  kind  heart 
question  the  excellence  of  their  intentions  with 
respect  to  China?  Shantung  would  of  course  be 
returned.  It  was  only  a  question  of  how. 

The  simple  heart  of  Colonel  House  did  not  save 
him,  either  as  a  diplomat  or  as  a  friend.  The 
failures  at  Paris  plunged  Mr.  Wilson  into  depres 
sion  in  which  he  went  as  far  down  into  the  valley 
as  he  had  been  up  on  the  heights  during  his  vision 
of  a  world  made  better  by  his  hand.  In  his  darker 
moments  he  saw  nothing  but  enmity  and  dis 
loyalty  about  him — even,  a  little  later,  "  usurpa 
tion'*  in  the  case  of  the  timorous  and  circumspect 
Mr.  Lansing. 

Colonel  House  says  that  he  does  not  yet  know 
what  caused  the  breach  between  the  President  and 
himself.  Relations  stopped;  that  was  all. 

This  is  what  occurred:  Shortly  after  Colonel 
House  had  convinced  the  President  that  the  dis 
posal  of  Shantung  was  only  a  question  of  method 
he  disappeared  from  Paris  "to  take  a  rest";  and  it 
became  known  that  after  all  he  was  not  to  sit  in 
the  Council  of  the  League  of  Nations  representing 
America,  as  Mr.  Wilson  had  originally  intended. 

101 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

At  this  time,  a  close  friend  of  President  Wilson 
and  one  of  his  most  intimate  advisers,  said  to  me, 
"The  most  insidious  influence  here  is  the  social 
influence. " 

British  entertainment  of  members  of  the  House 
family  had  been  marked  and  assiduous,  and  the 
flattery  had  had  its  effect,  though  not  probably 
upon  the  Colonel,  who  remained  unspoiled  by 
social  contacts  to  the  last.  Nevertheless,  a  mem 
ber  of  Mr.  Wilson's  family  had  called  the  Presi 
dent's  attention  to  the  social  forces  that  the  British 
were  bringing  to  bear.  The  President  by  this  time 
was  in  a  mood  to  be  made  angry  and  suspicious. 
Doubt  was  lodged  in  his  mind.  And  when  he 
found  this  country  critical  of  the  Shantung  settle 
ment,  that  doubt  became  a  conviction;  the  British 
through  social  attentions,  had  wheedled  House  into 
a  position  favorable  to  their  allies,  the  Japanese. 
The  loyal  House  was  convicted  of  the  one  unfor 
givable  offense,  disloyalty. 

When  the  casting  off  of  House  became,  later,  in 
this  country  unmistakable,  I  inquired  regarding  it 
of  the  friend  and  adviser  of  the  President  whom  I 
have  just  mentioned,  and  he  repeated  to  me, 
forgetting  that  he  used  them  before,  the  exact 
words  he  had  said  at  Paris,  "The  most  insidious 

102 


EDWARD  M.  HOUSE 

influence  at  the  Peace  Conference  was  the  social 
influence." 

The  most  insidious  influence  with  Colonel 
House  was  the  kindness  of  his  own  heart.  He  had 
too  many  friends.  His  view  of  international  rela 
tions  was  too  personal.  Principles  will  make  a 
man  hard,  cold,  and  unyielding,  and  Colonel  House 
had  no  principles,  or  had  them  only  parrot-like 
from  Mr.  Wilson.  He  was  the  human  side  of  the 
President,  who  for  those  contacts  which  his  office 
demanded  had  found  a  human  side  necessary  and 
accordingly  annexed  the  amiable  Texan. 

Wilson's  human  side  had  offended  him,  and  he 
cut  it  off,  accordingly  to  the  scriptural  injunction 
against  the  offending  right  hand.  The  act  was 
cruel,  but  it  was  just,  as  just  as  the  dismissal  of 
Mr.  Lansing;  for  House  failed  Wilson  at  Paris, 
being  one  of  Wilson's  greatest  sources  of  weakness 
there.  His  excessive  optimism,  his  kindheartedness, 
his  credulity,  his  lack  of  independence  of  mind,  his 
surrender  of  his  imagination  to  a  stronger  imagina 
tion,  his  conception  of  politics  not  as  morals  but 
as  the  adjustment  of  personal  differences,  left 
Wilson  without  a  capable  critical  adviser  at  the 
Conference. 

When  House  talked  to  Wilson,  it  was  a  weaker 

103 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

Wilson  talking  to  the  real  Wilson.  Colonel  House 
in  retirement  and  since  the  breach,  is  still  Colonel 
House,  kindhearted  and  unobtrusive.  He  has 
seen,  and  he  is  satisfied.  He  has  a  fine  and  per 
haps  half-unconscious  loyalty  to  the  great  man 
from  whose  shoulders  he  surveyed  the  world.  His 
is  an  ego  that  brushes  itself  off  readily  after  a  fall 
and  asks  for  no  alms  of  sympathy. 

He  does  not,  like  Mr.  Lansing,  fill  five  hundred 
octavo  pages  with  "I  told  you  so,"  and  you  can 
not  conceive  of  his  using  that  form  of  self- 
justification. 

I  hope  to  see  him  some  day  playing  Santa  Claus 
in  a  children's  Christmas  celebration  at  a  village 
church! 


10$ 


Harris  and  Ewing 


HERBERT  CLARK   HOOVER 


HERBERT  HOOVER 

ONE  reads  in  the  press  daily  of  Hughes  and 
Hoover,  or  Mellen  and  Hoover,  or  Davis  and 
Hoover,  or  Wallace  and  Hoover.  If  it  is  a  ques 
tion  of  foreign  relations,  it  is  the  Secretary  of  State 
and  Hoover.  If  it  has  to  do  with  using  our  power 
as  a  creditor  nation  to  compel  the  needy  foreigners  to 
buy  here  in  spite  of  the  tariff  wall  we  are  going  to 
erect  against  their  selling  here,  it  is  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  and  Hoover.  If  strikes  threaten, 
it  is  the  Secretary  of  Labor  and  Hoover.  If  the 
farmers  seek  more  direct  access  to  the  markets,  it 
is  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  and  Hoover. 

It  is  always  "and  Hoover."  What  Mr.  Hughes 
does  not  know  about  international  affairs — and 
that  is  considerable — Mr.  Hoover  does.  What 
Mr.  Mellen  does  not  know  about  foreign  finance — 
and  that  is  less — Mr.  Hoover  does.  What  Mr. 
Davis  does  not  know  about  labor — and  that  is 
everything — Mr.  Hoover  does.  What  Mr.  Wal- 

107 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

lace  does  not  know  about  farm  marketing — and 
that  is  nothing — Mr.  Hoover  does. 

Herbert  Hoover  is  the  most  useful  supplement 
of  the  administration.  He  possesses  a  variety  of 
experiences,  gained  in  making  money  abroad,  in 
administering  the  Belgian  relief,  in  husbanding 
the  world's  food  supply  after  our  entrance  into 
the  War,  in  helping  write  the  peace  treaty,  which 
no  one  else  equals.  He  is  as  handy  as  a  diction 
ary  of  dates  or  a  cyclopedia  of  useful  information, 
invaluable  books,  which  never  obtain  their  just 
due ;  for  no  one  ever  signs  his  masterpiece  with  the 
name  of  its  coauthor,  thus,  by  "John  Smith  and 
the  Cyclopedia  of  Useful  Information." 

A  bad  particle  to  ride  into  fame  behind,  that 
word  "and,"  begetter  of  much  oblivion!  Who 
can  say  what  goes  after  the  "and"  which  follows 
the  name  McKmley,  or  Hayes,  or  Cleveland,  or 
even  Roosevelt?  Who  has  sufficient  "faith  in 
Massachusetts"  to  remember  long  the  decorous 
dissyllable  connected  by  "and"  with  the  name 
Harding?  The  link,  "and,"  is  not  strong  enough 
to  hold.  You  recall  the  "and";  that  is  all; 
as  in  the  case  of  that  article  of  food,  origin  of 
many  "calories,"  to  use  Mr.  Hoover's  favorite 
word,  in  the  quick-serve  resorts  of  the  humble, 

108 


HERBERT  HOOVER 

where  it  supplements  ably  and  usefully,  but  with 
out  honorable  mention,  slender  portions  of  beef, 
pork,  and  ham. 

To  describe  briefly,  in  a  phrase,  what  has  hap 
pened  to  Hoover;  two  years  ago,  it  was  "Hoover"; 
to-day,  it  is  "and  Hoover/' 

Why  the  connective?  Because,  to  put  it  bluntly,  \ 
however  great  his  other  gifts  are — and  they  are 
remarkable — he  lacks  political  intelligence.  He 
reminds  one  now  of  a  great  insect  caught  in  the 
meshes  of  a  silken  web.  He  struggles  this  way  and 
that.  He  flutters  his  wings,  and  the  web  of  poli 
tics  fastens  itself  to  him  with  a  hundred  new 
contacts. 

Facing  possible  elimination  from  public  life,  he 
accepted  a  dull  and  unromantic  department  under 
Pesident  Harding.  He  was  told  that  he  could 
"make  something  of  it."  Modern  Greeks  bearing 
gifts  always  bring  you  an  opportunity  which  "you, 
and  you  alone,  can  make  something  of."  He  is 
trying  to  make  something  of  it,  something  more 
than  Mr.  Harding  and  the  party  advisers  intended 
when  they  gave  him  the  Secretaryship  of  Com 
merce.  He  is  trying  to  dramatize  some  turn  of 
fate  and  be  once  more  a  "big  figure."  He  is  tire 
less.  He  arrives  at  his  office  fabulously  early. 

109 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

Clerks  drop  in  their  tracks  before  he  leaves  at 
night.  He  has  time  to  see  everyone  who  would 
see  him;  for  he  can  never  tell  when  "the  man  with 
the  idea"  will  knock  at  his  door.  Unlike  the 
British  naval  officer  charged  with  the  duty  of  ex 
amining  inventions  to  win  the  War,  who  is  de- 
cribed  by  Guedalla  as  sitting  like  an  inverted 
Micawber  "waiting  for  something  to  turn  down," 
he  is  waiting  for  something  to  turn  up.  He  does 
more  than  wait;  he  works  twenty  hours  a  day 
trying  to  turn  something  up. 

And  he  will  turn  something  up.  The  chances 
are  that  he  will  do  as  much  for  the  infant  foreign 
trade  of  this  country  as  Alexander  Hamilton  did 
for  the  infant  finances  of  this  country.  He  promises 
to  be  the  most  useful  cabinet  officer  in  a  generation. 
But  this  is  less  than  his  ambition.  If  he  were  an 
unknown  man,  it  would  be  enough;  but  you 
measure  him  by  the  stature  of  Hoover  of  the  Bel 
gian  Relief.  Like  the  issue  of  great  fathers,  he  is 
eclipsed  by  a  preceding  fame.  As  well  be  the  son 
of  William  Shakespeare  as  the  political  progeny  of 
Hoover,  The  Food  Administrator! 

The  War  spoiled  life  for  many  men;  for  Wilson, 
for  Baruch,  for  Hoover.  After  its  magnificent 
amplifications  of  personality,  it  is  hard  to  descend 

no 


HERBERT  HOOVER 

to  every  day,  and  be  not  a  tremendous  figure, 
but  a  successful  secretary  of  an  unromantic 
department. 

He  might  concentrate  with  advantage  to  his 
future  fame.  A  brief  absence  from  front  pages, 
under  the  connective  "and,"  would  cause  the  pub 
lic  heart  to  grow  fonder  when  he  did  "make 
something "  of  his  own  department. 

But  two  disqualifications  stand  in  his  way; — his  [ 
lack  of  political  intelligence,  and  his  consequent 
inability  to  make  quick  decisions  in  a  political 
atmosphere.     His  present  diffusion  of  his  energies 
springs,  I  think,  from  indecision;  for  in  politics  j 
he  can  not  make  up  his  mind,  as  he  can  in  business, ) 
where  the  greatest  profit  lies. 

I  first  heard  of  this  weakness  of  his  when  he  was 
Food  Administrator  in  Washington,  and  when 
other  members  of  the  Wilson  War  Administration, 
equal  in  rank  with  him  and  having  to  cooperate 
with  him,  complained  frequently  of  his  slowness. 
He  had  able  subordinates,  they  said,  the  leading 
men  in  the  various  food  industries,  and  they  had 
to  make  up  his  mind  for  him.  I  set  this  charge 
down,  at  the  time,  to  jealousy  and  prejudice,  Mr. 
Hoover  being  always  an  outsider  in  the  Wilson 
administration;  but  the  long  delay  and  immense 

in 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 


f; 


difficulty  he  made  over  deciding,  although  all  his 
life  a  Republican,  whether  he  was  or  was  not  a 
Republican  in  the  campaign  of  1920,  seemed  all  the 
proof  of  indecision  that  was  needed. 

It  sounds  like  heresy  about  one  who  has  been 
advertised  as  he  has;  but  remember  that  we  know 
little  about  him  except  what  the  best  press  agents 
in  history  have  said  of  him.  He  achieved  his 
professional  success  in  the  Orient,  far  from  observa 
tion,  and  his  financial  success  far  from  American 
eyes.  His  public  career  in  the  relief  of  Belgium 
and  in  the  administration  of  food  was  the  object 
of  world-wide  good  will.  And,  moreover,  inde 
cision  in  politics  is  common  enough  among  men  who 
are  strong  and  able  in  other  activities.  Mr.  Taft 
was  a  great  judge  but  wrecked  his  administration 
as  President  by  inability  to  make  up  his  mind. 
Senator  Kellogg  was  a  brilliantly  successful  lawyer; 
but  in  public  life  he  is  so  hesitant  that  Minnesota 
politicians  speak  of  him  as  "  Nervous  Nelly,"  and 
even  Mr.  Taft,  during  the  Treaty  fight,  rebuked 
him  to  his  face  for  lack  of  courage. 

Mr.  Hoover's  face  is  not  that  of  a  decisive  char 
acter.  The  brow  is  ample  and  dominant;  there  is 
vision  and  keen  intelligence;  but  the  rest  of  the  face 
is  not  strong,  and  it  wears  habitually  a  wavering 

112 


HERBERT  HOOVER 

self-conscious  smile.  This  smile,  as  if  everybody 
were  looking  at  him,  makes  him  remind  one  as  he 
comes  out  of  a  Cabinet  meeting  of  a  small  boy  in  a 
classroom  carrying  a  bouquet  of  flowers  up  to  his 
teacher.  He  has,  moreover,  a  strain  of  pessimism 
in  his  nature,  which  may  account  for  his  indecision. 
You  catch  him  in  moods  of  profound  depression. 
He  was  in  one  just  before  his  appointment  to  the 
Cabinet,  when  his  European  relief  work  was  not 
going  to  his  liking,  and  when  the  politicians,  he 
felt,  were  forcing  him  into  a  position  of  little  scope 
and  opportunity. 

In  politics,  he  has  enough  vanity  and  self-con 
sciousness  to  be  aware  constantly  of  forces  opposed 
to  him,  covert,  hostile,  unscrupulous,  personal 
forces — forces  that  he  does  not  understand.  Give 
him  a  mining  problem,  he  can  reckon  with  the 
forces  of  nature  that  have  to  be  overcome.  Give 
him  a  problem  of  finance,  he  knows  the  enmities 
of  finance.  He  is  in  his  element.  In  politics  he 
is  not.  He  is  baffled. 

An  illustrative  incident  occurred  in  the  spring 
of  1920,  when  both  parties  were  talking  of  him  as 
their  candidate  for  President  and  he  was  uncertain 
whether  he  was  a  Republican  or  not.  Mr.  Hearst, 
in  his  newspapers,  published  an  attack  upon  him, 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

saying  that  he  was  more  Briton  than  American, 
and  to  prove  it  printed  a  list  of  British  corporations 
of  which  he  was  a  director. 

All  his  suspicions  were  aroused  over  this  every 
day  occurrence  of  politics.  Where  had  Mr.  Hearst 
obtained  the  unfortunate  information?  He  saw 
plots  and  treachery.  Someone  in  his  confidence 
must  have  betrayed  him  for  money.  A  careful 
investigation  was  made,  and  it  was  discovered 
that  the  editor  had  drawn  upon  "  Who's  Who/1  to 
which  Mr.  Hoover  himself  had  furnished  the 
information  before  he  began  thinking  of  the 
Presidency. 

;  The  politicians  tricked  him  so  completely  in  the 
preconvention  campaign  of  1920  that  he  has  the 
best  reasons  for  distrusting  himself.  He  was  al 
ways,  during  that  campaign,  a  candidate  for  the 
Republican  nomination  to  the  Presidency.  At 
the  very  time  when  his  spokesman,  Julius  Barnes, 
was  saying  for  him  that  he  could  not  choose  be 
tween  the  two  parties  until  he  had  seen  their 
candidates  and  read  their  platforms,  and  when  the 
Democrats  were  most  seriously  impressed  with  his 
availability,  the  manager  of  his  paper  in  Washing 
ton  said  to  me,  "This  talk  of  Hoover  for  the  Demo 
cratic  nomination  is  moonshine.  He  won' t  take  it." 

114 


HERBERT  HOOVER 

1  'Why  not,"  I  asked  him. 

"Because,"  he  replied,  "he  does  not  think  it  is 
worth  having,"  a  quite  practical  reason  which 
differed  wholly  from  the  official  explaration  that 
Mr.  Hoover  was  waiting  to  see  which  party  was 
progressive  so  that  he  might  oppose  reaction. 

His  subsequent  support  of  the  more  conservative 
candidate  and  the  more  conservative  party  bore 
out  the  truth  of  what  his  newspaper  manager  had 
said.  And  in  reality,  Mr.  Hoover  is  as  conserva 
tive  as  Mr.  Harding  himself,  being  a  large  capital 
ist  with  all  the  conservatism  of  the  capitalist  class. 

A  little  while  ago,  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  made  it 
unfashionable  to  admit  that  you  were  conserva 
tive.  You  wished  it  to  be  understood  that  you 
were  open-minded — "forward  looking,"  as  Mr. 
Wilson,  who  turned  reactionary  at  the  test,  called 
it;  that  you  were  broad,  sympathetic,  free  from 
mean  prejudices,  progressive,  in  short  Our  very 
best  reactionaries  of  to-day  all  used  to  call  them 
selves  progressive.  Some  still  do. 

The  young  editor  of  a  metropolitan  newspaper, 
born  to  great  wealth,  and  imbibing  all  the  narrow 
ness  of  the  second  generation,  once  asked  me  in 
those  bright  days  when  everybody  was  thrilling 
over  his  "liberality,"  "Would  you  call  me  a  radi- 

115 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

cal,  or  just  a  progressive?"  He  was  "just  a  pro 
gressive."  In  a  somewhat  similar  sense,  Mr. 
Hoover  was  quite  unconsciously  "just  a  progres 
sive" — a  belated  follower  of  a  pleasant  fashion, 
having  lived  abroad  too  long  when  he  made  his 
announcement  to  note  the  subtle  changes  that  had 
taken  place  in  our  thinking — the  rude  shock  that 
Russia  had  given  to  our  "liberality." 

But  living  abroad,  it  is  only  fair  to  add,  has 
created  a  difference  between  his  conservatism  and 
that,  let  us  say,  of  Judge  Gary.  He  has  grown 
used  to  labor  unions  and  even  to  labor  parties,  so 
that  they  do  not  frighten  him.  His  is  conserva 
tism,  none  the  less,  definite  conservatism,  if  more 
enlightened  than  the  obscurant  American  variety. 

His  hesitation  and  indecision  in  the  spring  of 
1920  thus  did  not  spring  from  doubt  of  the  Re 
publican  party's  progressiveness.  He  always  de 
sired  the  Republican  nomination;  but  his  vanity 
would  suffer  by  the  open  seeking  of  it  and  the 
defeat  which  seemed  likely;  and  his  sensitiveness 
would  suffer  from  the  attacks,  like  that  of  Mr. 
Hearst,  which  an  open  candidacy  would  entail;  for 
he  is  at  once  vain  and  thin-skinned. 

Springing  thus  from  reluctance  to  make  up  his 
mind,  the  announcement  was  received  as  the  evi- 

116 


HERBERT  HOOVER 

dence  of  a  very  large  mind.  Among  the  public,  \ 
Mr.  Hoover  was  taken  for  a  man  who  cared  more 
for  principle  than  for  party  or  for  politics.  Among 
the  politicians,  he  assumed  the  proportions  of  a 
portent,  with  a  genius  for  politics  second  only  to 
that  of  Roosevelt  himself,  who  in  a  difficult  situa 
tion  could  take  the  one  position  and  say  the  one 
thing  that  might  force  his  nomination. 

The  Democrats  pricked  up  their  ears.  Mr. 
Wilson,  sick  and  discouraged,  began  to  entertain 
hopes  of  a  candidate  who  would  save  the  De 
mocracy  from  ruin.  Homer  Cummings,  National 
Chairman  of  Mr.  Wilson's  party,  began  to  regard 
Mr.  Hoover's  possible  nomination  favorably.  The 
Republican  managers  became  alarmed.  They 
knew  from  Mr.  Hoover's  friends  that  he,  as  his 
Washington  newspaper  manager  had  said,  thought 
the  Democratic  nomination  not  worth  having;  but 
they  feared  lest  by  the  course  he  was  pursuing  he 
might  make  it  worth  having,  might  take  it,  and 
might  rob  them  of  the  election  which  they  felt 
safely  theirs.  If  they  could  induce  him  to  de 
clare  his  Republicanism,  the  Democrats  would 
drop  him,  the  public  would  cease  to  be  interested 
in  him  as  a  dramatic  personality  too  big  for  party 
trammels,  and  they  themselves  could  ignore  him. 

117 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

It  was  decided  to  have  him  read  out  of  the  Re 
publican  party  as  a  warning  to  him  of  how  he  was 
imperiling  his  hopes  of  the  only  nomination  he 
valued,  and  at  the  same  time  have  Republican 
leaders  go  to  him  or  his  friends  and  advise  him  and 
them  that  if  he  would  only  declare  his  Republican 
ism,  a  popular  demand  would  force  his  nomination 
at  Chicago. 

Senator  Penrose  was  chosen  as  the  Republican 
whose  pontifical  damnation  would  most  impress 
Mr.  Hoover.  The  late  W.  Murray  Crane,  whom  I 
have  heard  described  at  Mr.  Roosevelt's  dinner 
table  as  "the  Uriah  Heap  of  the  Republican  party, " 
was  the  emissary  who  would  advise  Mr.  Hoover  to 
confess  the  error  of  his  ways  and  seek  the  absolu 
tion  of  Penrose.  A  diary  kept  at  Republican 
National  Headquarters  in  New  York  reveals  the 
visits  there  at  the  time  the  plan  was  made  of  Mr. 
Crane  and  others  who  took  part  in  the  enterprise. 
Mr.  Penrose  got  up  from  a  sick  bed  and  thundered: 
under  no  circumstances  would  he  permit  the 
nomination  of  Mr.  Hoover. 

The  plot  succeeded.  In  a  few  days,  Mr.  Hoover 
declared  that  he  would  not  take  the  Democratic 
nomination.  The  Democrats  dropped  him.  The 
public  was  bewildered  by  his  finding  out  that  he 

118 


HERBERT  HOOVER 

was  a  Republican  after  saying  that  he  could  not  tell 
whether  he  was  one  or  not  until  he  had  seen  the 
Republican  candidate  and  the  platform. 

At  the  Chicago  Convention  he  received  the  sup 
port  of  Mr.  Crane,  Governor  Miller,  of  New  York, 
and,  on  the  last  ballot,  of  William  Allen  White, 
who  having  voted  for  Harding  on  the  just  previous 
ballot,  said  he  wanted  to  "leave  the  bandwagon 
and  ride  with  the  undertaker.'* 

This  guilelessness  of  Mr.  Hoover  in  politics  will 
prevent  him  from  realizing  his  larger  ambitions; 
but  is  a  source  of  strength  to  him  in  his  present 
position,  with  American  business  men  who  have 
learned  to  distrust  politicians.  At  any  rate,  he  is 
no  politician;  he  thinks  as  business  men  think;  his 
interests  are  their  interests ;  and  when  he  comes  to 
them  bearing  gifts, — the  aid  and  cooperation  of  the 
United  States  Government  in  their  efforts  to  win 
foreign  trade, — they  do  not  take  him  for  a  Greek. 

He  possesses  great  special  knowledge  which  they 
desire:  he  knows  much  about  economics  and  en 
joys  the  advantage  of  believing  that  he  knows  all; 
he  has  immense  prestige,  as  a  result  of  all  the  ad 
vertising  he  received  during  the  War;  they  come  to 
Washington  and  sit  at  his  feet  like  children;  he 
gives  them  fatherly  lectures,  even  upon  the  morals 

119 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

of  their  business,  which  must  be  clean,  to  enter  this 
foreign  trade  of  his,  with  the  Government  behind  it. 
They  make  mental  resolutions  of  reform.  To  no  poli 
tician,  to  no  one,  even  with  an  instinct  for  politics, 
would  they  listen  as  they  listen  to  him.  He  speaks 
to  American  business  with  immense  authority. 
His  selection  is  an  example  of  that  unusual  in 
stinct  for  putting  the  right  man  in  the  right  place 
which  President  Harding  has,  when  he  chooses  to 
exercise  it. 

The  post  was  disappointing  to  Mr.  Hoover;  but 
it  was  the  one  in  which  he  will  be  most  useful.  Not 
a  lawyer,  he  would  hardly  have  done  for  Secretary 
of  State,  in  spite  of  his  exceptional  knowledge  of 
foreign  conditions.  Not  a  banker,  he  lacked  the 
technical  equipment  for  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
Not  a  politician,  he  should  have,  and  he  has  a  place 
in  which  there  are  the  least  possible  politics.  Mr. 
Harding  denatured  him  politically  by  giving  him 
the  one  business  department  in  the  Cabinet.  Even 
Hiram  Johnson  may  come  no  longer  to  hate  him. 

For  his  present  task,  besides  his  special 
knowledge,  his  remarkable  industry,  his  tireless 
application  to  details,  he  has  one  great  gift,  his 
extraordinary  talent  for  publicity.  There  is  no 
one  in  Washington,  not  even  Mr.  Hughes,  who 

I2O 


HERBERT  HOOVER 

knows  so  well  as  he  does  how  to  advertise  what  he 
is  doing. 

As  business  recovers  and  foreign  trade  develops, 
the  magazine  pages  will  blossom  with  articles  about 
what  American  enterprise  is  achieving  in  foreign 
lands,  about  the  cooperation  between  American 
business  and  the  American  government,  and,  once 
more,  about  Mr.  Hoover.  Finding  markets  for 
American  wares  all  over  the  earth  will  be  made  a 
romance  only  second  in  interest  to  the  feeding  of 
Belgium. 

It  was  not  an  accident  that  he  was  better  ad 
vertised  than  any  general,  admiral,  or  statesman 
of  the  War.  It  was  not  all  due  to  the  good  will  of 
the  public,  to  the  work  which  he  did  in  Belgium 
and  in  this  country,  nor  to  the  extraordinary  press 
agents  whose  services  he  was  able  to  command 
because  of  that  good  will.  Back  of  it  all  was  his 
own  instinct  for  publicity,  his  sense  of  what  in 
terests  the  people,  his  assiduous  cultivation  of 
editors  and  reporters.  He  has  magazine  and  news 
paper  contacts  only  exceeded  by  those  of  Roose 
velt  in  his  time,  and  a  sense  of  the  power  of 
publicity  only  exceeded  by  Roosevelt's. 

When  he  was  threatening  to  win  the  Democratic 
nomination  for  the  Presidency  in  spite  of  the  fact 

121 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

that  he  was  not  a  Democrat,  a  supporter  of 
McAdoo  complained  bitterly  to  me,  "  Confound 
him!  He  has  a  genius  for  self -advertising.  He  is 
not  half  the  man  McAdoo  is.  He  hasn't  McAdoo's 
courage,  optimism,  force,  or  general  statesmanship; 
but  he  has  this  infernal  talent  for  getting  himself 
in  the  papers.  There  is  not  much  to  him  but  press 
agenting;  but  how  can  you  beat  that?" 

But  though  his  own  name  has  come  to  count 
for  more  than  the  causes  he  represents,  so  that 
the  best  way  to  obtain  aid  is  to  ask  for  it  with 
"Hoover"  in  big  letters  and  with  the  suffering 
children  of  Central  Europe  in  small  letters,  still  he 
remains  only  a  name  to  the  American  people. 
They  know  that  he  always  wears  a  blue  suit  of 
clothes  cut  on  an  invariable  model,  which  he 
adopted  years  ago.  They  know  that  he  worked  his 
way  through  college  as  a  waiter.  They  know  that 
he  grew  rich  as  a  mining  engineer  in  the  East. 
That  is  all.  They  think  of  him  as  a  symbol  of 
efficiency,  as  one  who  may  save  their  money,  as 
one  who  may  find  markets  for  them  and  develop 
their  trade,  as  one  who  may  help  che  world  upon 
its  feet  again  after  the  War,  as  a  superman,  if  you 
will;  but  not  as  a  man,  not  as  a  human  being. 

All  his  advertising  has  made  him  appeal  to  the 

122 


HERBERT  HOOVER 

American  imagination,  but  not  to  the  American  ) 
heart.  He  is  a  sort  of  efficiency  engineer,  installing 
his  charts  and  his  systems  into  public  life, — and  who 
loves  an  efficiency  engineer?  There  are  no  stories 
about  him  which  give  him  a  place  in  the  popular 
breast.  It  is  impossible  to  interest  yourself  in 
Hoover  as  Hoover;  in  Hoover  as  the  man  who  did 
this,  or  the  man  who  did  that,  or  the  man  who  will 
do  this  or  that,  yes, — but  not  in  Hoover,  the 
person. 

The  reason  is  that  he  has  little  personality.  On 
close  contact,  he  is  disappointing,  without  charm, 
given  to  silence,  as  if  he  had  nothing  for  ordinary 
human  relations  which  had  no  profitable  bearing 
on  the  task  in  hand.  His  conversation  is  applied 
efficiency  engineering;  there  is  no  lost  motion, 
though  it  is  lost  motion  which  is  the  delight  of  life, 
At  dinner,  he  inclines  to  bury  his  face  in  his  plate 
until  the  talk  reaches  some  subject  important  to 
him,  when  he  explodes  a  few  facts,  and  is  once  more 
silent. 

Had  he  a  personality  with  his  instinct  for  public 
ity,  he  would  be  another  Roosevelt.  But  he  is 
a  bare  expert. 

I  doubt  if  he  really  thinks  of  human  beings  as 
human  beings;  on  the  contrary,  some  engineering 

123 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

graph  represents  humanity  in  his  mind.  It  is 
characteristic  of  him  that  he  always  speaks  of  the 
relief  of  starving  populations  not  in  terms  of 
human  suffering,  but  in  terms  of  chemistry.  The 
people,  of  whatever  country  he  may  be  feeding, 
have  so  many  calories  now,  last  month  they  had  so 
many  calories;  if  they  had  ten  calories  more,  they 
could  maintain  existence.  Many  times  have  I 
heard  this  formula.  It  is  a  weakness  in  a  de 
mocracy  to  think  of  people  in  terms  of  graphs,  and 
their  welfare  in  terms  of  calories;  that  is,  if  you 
hope  to  be  President  of  that  democracy — not- if 
you  are  content  to  be  its  excellent  Secretary  of 
Commerce. 

When  he  came  to  Washington  as  a  Food  Ad 
ministrator,  he  brought  with  him  an  old  associate, 
a  professor  from  California.  A  few  days  later  the 
professor's  wife  arrived  and  went  to  live  at  the 
same  house  where  Mr.  Hoover  and  her  husband 
resided.  Mr.  Hoover  knew  her  well.  She  and 
her  husband  had  long  been  his  friends.  He  met 
her  in  the  hall,  shook  hands  with  her,  welcomed 
her  and  then  lapsed  into  silence.  After  some 
moments,  he  said,  "Well, — "  and  hesitated. 

" Mr.  Hoover/'  she  said,  "I  know  you  are  a  busy 
man.  You  don't  have  to  stand  here  trying  to 

124 


HERBERT  HOOVER 

think  of  something  to  say  to  me.  I  know  you  well 
enough  not  to  be  offended  if  you  don't  talk  to  me 
at  all  while  I  am  here/* 

He  laughed  and  took  her  at  her  word.  He  had 
the  habit  of  too  great  relevancy  to  be  human.  If 
he  could  have  said  more  than  "Well"  to  that 
woman,  he  might  have  been  President. 


HENRY   CABOT   LODGE 


HENRY  CABOT  LODGE 

WHEN  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  was  elected  to  Con 
gress  thirty-four  years  ago  there  were  no  portents 
in  the  heavens,  but  there  was  rejoicing  in  his  native 
city  of  Boston  and  in  many  other  places.  It  was 
hailed  as  the  dawn  of  a  new  era.  Young,  he  was 
only  thirty-seven,  well  educated,  a  teacher  of 
history,  and  with  six  serious  books  to  his  credit,  he 
was  a  new  figure  in  politics;  Providence,  moving 
in  its  mysterious  way,  had  designed  him  to  redeem 
politics  from  its  baseness  and  set  a  shining  example. 

Everything  was  in  his  favor;  he  was  not  only 
learned,  so  learned,  in  fact,  that  he  was  promptly 
dubbed  the  " scholar  in  politics,"  but  he  was  rich, 
and  therefore  immune  from  all  sordid  temptation ; 
he  was  a  gentleman.  Mr.  Lodge's  forbears  had  been 
respectable  tradesmen  who  knew  how  to  make 
money  and  to  keep  it—and  the  latter  trait  is  strongly 
developed  in  their  senatorial  descendant.  From 
them  he  inherited  a  fortune;  he  had  been  educated 

9  129 


THE  MIRRQRS  OF  WASHINGTON 

in  a  select  private  school  and  then  gone  through 
Harvard,  whence  he  emerged  with  an  LL.B.  and 
a  Ph.D.  attached  to  his  name.  By  all  the  estab 
lished  canons  he  was  a  "  gentleman "  as  well  as  a 
scholar.  In  the  intervals  between  teaching  and 
writing  he  had  found  time  to  be  admitted  to  the 
Boston  bar. 

With  that  equipment  it  could  be  safely  pre 
dicted  Mr.  Lodge  would  go  far.  He  has.  To-day 
he  is  the  leader  of  the  Republican  party  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States. 

He  early  justified  the  promise.  While  still  a 
Congressional  freshman  he  drafted  and  introduced 
into  the  House  the  "Force  Bill,'*  which  came  to  a 
violent  death  in  the  Senate.  That  Bill  was  not 
only  a  prophecy  but  it  is  a  resum6  of  Mr.  Lodge's 
career.  It  is  partisanship  gone  mad. 

On  the  pretense  that  it  was  intended  to  secure  fair 
elections  in  the  South,  but  actually,  as  described 
by  a  member  of  the  House  at  the  time,  to  prevent 
elections  being  held  in  several  districts,  it  placed 
the  election  machinery  in  the  control  of  the  Federal 
Government,  which,  through  the  Chief  Super 
visor  of  Elections,  to  be  appointed  by  the  Presi 
dent,  and  his  Praetorian  Guard  of  Deputy  Marshals, 
would  have  controlled  every  election  and  returned 

130 


HENRY  CABOT  LODGE 

an  overwhelming  Republican  majority  from  the 
Southern  States. 

The  Bill  was  typical  of  Mr.  Lodge  and  the  way 
he  plays  politics.  The  Force  Bill  would  probably 
have  ended  ingloriously  the  political  career  of  any 
other  man,  but  Mr.  Lodge  had  the  luck  of  being  a 
gentleman  born  in  Boston.  Boston  is  slow  to  forget. 
A  quarter  of  a  century  after  the  Civil  War,  Boston 
still  remembered  that  conflict,  its  heart  still  bled 
for  the  negro  deprived  of  his  vote;  and  a  Boston 
gentleman  couldtdo  no  wrong — to  the  Democratic 
Party. 

The  House  amused  Mr.  Lodge,  but  it  was  too 
promiscuous  for  a  person  of  his  delicate  sensibili- 
ties  who  shrank  from  intimate  contact  with  the 
uneducated  and  the  socially  unwashed.  Henry 
Cabot  Lodge  always  creates  the  impression  that  it 
is  a  condescension  on  his  part  to  God  to  have 
allowed  Him  to  create  a  world  which  is  not  ex- 
clusively  possessed  by  the  Cabots  and  the  Lodges 
and  their  connections. 

All  that  is  only  an  unfortunate  manner.  He  is 
really  the  friend  of  the  people,  abominating 
snobbishness  and  aristocratic  pretensions;  in  his 
younger  days,  when  he  was  campaigning  for  Con 
gress,  he  was  known  to  have  slapped  a  constituent 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

on  the  back  and  called  him  familiarly  by  his  first 
name;  even  now,  although  he  has  long  ceased  to  be 
a  politician  and  has  been  canonized  as  a  statesman, 
the  old  impulses  are  strong  in  him.  When  the 
time  draws  near  for  his  reelection  to  the  Senate, 
he  goes  back  to  Massachusetts,  there  to  take  part 
with  the  common  people  in  their  simple  pleasures, 
and  affably  to  extend  a  cold  and  clammy  hand  to 
voters,  who  still  venerate  him  as  a  scholar  in 
politics  and  a  gentleman.  So  it  will  be  easily 
understood  why  one  of  Mr.  Lodge's  temperament 
should  early  have  cast  his  covetous  eye  on  the 
Senate,  and  at  the  first  opportunity  moved  over  to 
that  more  select  atmosphere,  which  he  did  in  1893. 
When  Senator  Lodge  entered  public  life  the 
flagrant  spoils  system  was  rampant.  A  little  band 
of  earnest  men  was  fighting  to  reform  the  civil 
service  so  as  to  make  it  a  permanent  establishment 
with  merit  and  fitness  the  tests  for  appointment 
instead  of  political  influence.  It  was  a  cause  nat 
urally  to  appeal  to  the  "best  people'*  of  Boston, 
and  Mr.  Lodge,  being  one  of  them,  having  inflex 
ible  principles  and  a  high  code  of  honor,  threw 
himself  eagerly  into  the  reform  movement  and 
became  its  apostle.  His  principles  were  so  stern 
and  unyielding,  he  demanded  such  an  exalted 

132 


HENRY  CABOT  LODGE 

standard  of  private  and  public  morality,  that,  al 
though  he  worshipped  the  Republican  Party  with 
a  devotion  almost  as  great  as  the  memory  of  that 
grandfather  who  laid  the  foundation  of  the  family 
fortunes,  with  a  sorely  stricken  heart  he  was  com 
pelled  to  differ  with  Mr.  Elaine  and  to  flirt 
with  those  Ruperts  of  American  politics,  the 
Mugwumps. 

"The  man  who  sets  up  as  being  much  better 
than  his  age  is  always  to  be  suspected,"  says  a 
historian,  "and  Cato  is  perhaps  the  best  specimen 
of  the  rugged  hypocrite  that  history  can  produce. " 

As  a  summary  of  the  character  of  Cato,  this  is 
admirable,  but  no  one  would  call  Mr.  Lodge 
"rugged." 

Mr.  Lodge's  principles,  it  has  been  observed, 
are  inflexible  and  rest  on  solid  foundation,  but  like 
good  steel  they  can  bend  without  breaking.  An 
ardent  civil  service  reformer,  a  champion  of  public 
morality,  so  long  as  offices  were  being  awarded  to 
the  faithful,  he  saw  no  reason  why  he  should  be 
the  victim  of  his  own  self  denying  ordinance. 
Early  in  his  career  he  became  a  very  successful 
purveyor  of  patronage,  developing  a 'keen  scent  for 
vacant  places  or  a  post  filled  by  a  Democrat.  As 
a  theoretical  civil  service  reformer  Mr.  Lodge  left 

133 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

nothing  to  be  desired;  as  a  practical  spoilsman  he 
had  few  equals.  A  Senator's  usefulness  to  his 
friends  is  much  greater  than  that  of  a  member  of 
the  House,  and  if  a  Senator  works  his  pull  for  all 
that  it  is  worth  he  can  accomplish  much.  Mr. 
Lodge  was  not  idle. 

With  his  grandfathers  and  his  fortune  Mr.  Lodge 
inherited  a  violent  and  bitter  dislike  of  England. 
Probably  no  man — not  even  the  most  extreme 
Irish  agitator — is  more  responsible  for  the  feeling 
existing  against  England  than  Mr.  Lodge ;  because 
the  outspoken  Irish  agitator  is  known  for  what  he 
is  and  treated  accordingly;  carrying  out  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  thought,  he  will  be  execrated  by  decent 
people;  but  Mr.  Lodge,  posing  as  the  impartial 
historian  and  the  patriotic  statesman,  is  applauded. 

Just  as  Mr.  Lodge  gained  a  certain  fame  when  he 
was  a  member  of  the  House  from  the  Force  Bill, 
which  his  own  party  repudiated,  so  he  signalized 
his  admission  into  the  Senate  by  proposing  to  force 
England  to  adopt  free  silver.  It  was  an  oppor 
tunity  to  strike  at  England  in  a  vital  spot;  it  was 
as  statesmanlike  and  patriotic  as  his  attempt  to 
deprive  the  South  of  their  representatives. 

Mr.    Cleveland  was  fighting  with   splendid 
courage  to  save  the  country  from  free  silver,  caring 

134 


HENRY  CABOT  LODGE 

nothing  for  politics  and  animated  solely  by  the 
highest  and  most  disinterested  motives,  and  Mr. 
Lodge  was  thinking  only  of  his  spite.  President 
Cleveland,  said  a  Boston  paper,  deserved  and  had 
the  right  to  expect  Mr.  Lodge's  support,  instead  of 
which  "we  find  our  junior  Senator  introducing  a 
legislative  proposition  intended  to  appeal  at  once 
to  the  anti-British  prejudices  of  a  good  many 
Americans,  and  to  the  desire  of  the  then  preponder 
ating  sentiment  of  the  country  to  force  a  silver 
currency  upon  the  American  people.  It  was  an 
effort  to  strike  at  England. " 

Mr.  Lodge  proposed  that  all  imports  from  Great 
Britain  or  her  colonies  should  pay  duties  double 
those  of  the  regular  rates,  and  any  article  on  the 
free  list  should  be  made  dutiable  at  thirty-five  per 
cent;  these  additional  and  discriminating  duties 
were  to  remain  in  force  until  Great  Britain  as 
sented  to  and  took  part  in  an  international  agree 
ment  "for  the  coinage  and  use  of  silver." 

Mr.  Lodge's  free  silver  amendment  shared  the 
same  tomb  with  his  Force  Bill ;  in  the  Senate  fortu 
nately  there  were  men  with  broader  vision  and 
less  passion. 

In  his  biography  in  the  Congressional  Directory 
(written  by  himself)  and  in  the  numerous  biogra- 

135 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

phies  and  sketches  which  have  been  published  with 
such  frequency  (Mr.  Lodge  has  a  weakness  for 
seeing  himself  in  print)  curiously  enough  no  men 
tion  can  be  found  either  of  the  Force  Bill  or  the 
attempt  to  coerce  England  with  a  silver  club.  One 
can  only  explain  this  reticence  by  excessive 
modesty. 

Two  years  later  Mr.  Lodge  deserted  his  silver 
allies  and  was  as  enthusiastic  in  support  of  the 
gold  standard  as  he  had  previously  been  zealous 
for  the  purification  of  the  civil  service.  A  Boston 
paper  said  that  he  "was  made  to  realize,  by  the 
influences  brought  to  bear  upon  him,  that  he  must 
advocate  the  gold  standard  or  else  provoke  the 
active  hostility  of  the  prominent  business  men  of 
this  State. "  That  perhaps  is  as  infamous  as  any 
thing  ever  written.  That  any  influences,  even 
those  "of  the  prominent  business  men  of  Massa 
chusetts,"  could  cause  Mr.  Lodge  to  swerve  from 
his  convictions  no  one  will  believe.  He  must  have 
had  convictions  when  he  sought  to  drive  England 
to  a  silver  standard,  he  must  have  been  convinced 
that  it  was  for  the  good  of  the  United  States  as 
well  as  the  whole  world,  he  must  have  satisfied 
himself,  for  Mr.  Lodge  never  permits  his  emotions 
to  control  his  intelligence,  that  his  action  was  wise 

136 


HENRY  CABOT  LODGE 

and  patriotic.  But  although  Mr.  Lodge  will  not 
surrender  his  convictions  he  has  no  scruples  about 
consistency. 

Mr.  Lodge's  principles  are  so  stern  that  he  re 
fused  to  consent  to  Colombia  being  paid  for  the 
territory  seized  by  President  Roosevelt.  Mr. 
Lodge  made  a  report  (this  was  when  Mr.  Wilson 
was  President,  and  I  mention  it  merely  as  an 
historical  fact)  in  which  he  denounced  Colombia's 
claim  as  blackmail,  resented  it  as  an  insult  to  the 
memory  of  Mr.  Roosevelt,  and  delared  in  approved 
copybook  fashion  (being  fond  of  platitudes),  that 
friendship  between  nations  cannot  be  bought. 
Later  (this  was  when  Mr.  Harding  was  President, 
and  I  mention  it  merely  as  an  historical  fact)  as 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations, 
he  brought  in  a  report  urging  the  ratification  of  the 
treaty,  and  discovered  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  had 
really  been  in  favor  of  the  treaty,  expunged  the 
unpleasant  word  blackmail  from  his  lexicon,  and 
sapiently  observed,  so  impossible  is  it  for  him  not 
to  indulge  in  platitudes,  that  sometimes  a  nation 
has  to  pay  more  for  a  thing  than  it  is  really  worth ; 
a  reflection  that  would  have  done  credit  to  the 
oracular  wisdom  of  Captain  Jack  Bunsby. 

Mr.  Lodge  attacked  the  treaty  of  peace  with 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

Germany  while  it  was  still  in  process  of  negotia 
tion  and  severely  criticized  Mr.  Wilson  for  not  hav 
ing  consulted  the  Senate.  That  the  Senate  has 
no  right  to  ask  about  the  details  of  a  treaty  before 
the  President  sends  it  in  for  ratification  is  a  con 
stitutional  axiom  which  Mr.  Lodge,  with  his  cus 
tomary  mental  infidelity,  caressed  at  one  time  and 
spurned  at  another. 

When  the  treaty  with  Spain  was  before  the 
Senate  (that  was  when  Mr.  McKinley  was  Presi 
dent,  and  I  mention  it  merely  as  an  historical  fact) 
it  was  attacked  by  some  of  the  Democrats.  To 
silence  these  criticisms  Mr.  Lodge  said,  "  We  have 
no  possible  right  to  break  suddenly  into  the  middle 
of  a  negotiation  and  demand  from  the  President 
what  instructions  he  has  given  to  his  representa 
tives.  That  part  of  treaty  making  is  no  concern 
of  ours." 

The  Democrats  attempted  to  defeat  the  ratifica 
tion  of  the  treaty,  and  if  that  was  done,  said  Mr. 
Lodge,  "we  repudiate  the  President  and  his  action 
before  the  whole  world,  and  the  repudiation  of  the 
President  in  such  a  matter  as  this  is,  to  my  mind, 
the  humiliation  of  the  United  States  in  the  eyes  of 
the  civilized  world. ' '  The  President  could  not  be  sent 
back  to  say  to  Spain  "with  bated  breath"  (even  in 

138 


HENRY  CABOT  LODGE 

his  most  solemn  moments  Mr.  Lodge  cannot  resist 
the  commonplace)  "we  believe  we  have  been  too 
victorious  and  that  you  have  yielded  us  too  much 
and  that  I  am  very  sorry  that  I  took  the  Philippines 
from  you.1' 

But  that  was  precisely  what  Mr.  Lodge  de 
manded  should  and  must  be  done  when  Mr.  Wilson 
brought  back  the  peace  treaty.  Inconsistency,  as 
I  have  before  remarked,  Mr.  Lodge  cares  nothing 
about,  but  his  patriotism  and  partisanship  are  so 
inextricably  intertwined  that  it  is  always  difficult 
to  discover  whether  in  his  loftiest  flights  it  is  the 
patriot  who  pleads  or  the  partisan  who  intrigues. 

Thus,  in  the  debate  on  the  Spanish  treaty,  Mr. 
Lodge  delivered  himself  of  these  noble  sentiments: 
"I  have  ideals  and  beliefs  which  pertain  to  the 
living  present,  and  a  faith  in  the  future  of  my 
country.  I  believe  in  the  American  people  as  they 
are  to-day  and  in  the  civilization  they  have 
created,"  and  many  more  beautiful  words  to  the 
same  effect.  It  was  the  language  of  a  statesman 
with  aspirations  and  convictions.  It  sounded 
splendidly.  Mr.  Lodge  is  a  classical  scholar,  and 
one  wonders  whether  he  remembers  his  Epictetus: 
"  But  you  utter  your  elegant  words  only  from  your 
lips;  for  this  reason  they  are  without  strength  and 

139 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

dead,  and  it  is  nauseous  to  listen  to  your  exhorta 
tions  and  your  miserable  virtue;  which  is  talked 
of  everywhere." 

It  was  the  late  Senator  Wolcott,  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  orators  of  his  day,  who  explained  why 
Mr.  Lodge's  oratory  left  men  cold.  Wolcott  was 
commenting  on  a  speech  delivered  by  Lodge  a  few 
days  earlier  and  someone  said  to  him  that  men 
listened  to  Lodge  with  eyes  undimmed. 

"To  bring  tears  from  an  audience,"  said  Wol 
cott,  "the  speaker  must  feel  tears  here  (and  he 
pointed  to  his  throat) ,  but  Lodge  can  speak  for  an 
hour  with  nothing  but  saliva  in  his  throat." 

Mr.  Lodge's  dislike  of  Mr.  Wilson  was  almost 
malignant.  Rumor  ascribes  it  to  professional 
jealousy.  Before  Mr.  Wilson  came  into  promi 
nence  Mr.  Lodge  was  the  only  scholar  in  politics, 
but  Mr.  Wilson  was  so  far  his  superior  in  erudi 
tion,  especially  in  Mr.  Lodge's  chosen  profession  of 
history,  that  he  resented  being  deprived  of  his 
monopoly.  Perhaps  there  is  another  reason.  Mr. 
Lodge  has  cherished  two  ambitions,  neither  of 
which  has  been  gratified.  The  Presidency  has 
been  the  ignis  fatuus  he  has  pursued;  he  was  the 
residuary  legatee  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  bankrupt 
political  estate  in  1916,  it  will  be  recalled;  last  year, 

140 


HENRY  CABOT  LODGE 

after  his  fight  on  the  treaty,  he  considered  himself 
the  logical  candidate  and  believed  he  had  the 
nomination  in  his  grasp.  He  has  longed  to  be 
Secretary  of  State,  and  it  was  a  bitter  disappoint 
ment  when  Mr.  Harding  did  not  invite  him  to 
enter  the  Cabinet. 

Mr.  Lodge  is  a  curious  and  not  uninteresting 
study  in  psychology.  He  has  no  great  talent,  but 
he  is  not  without  some  ability ;  in  his  youth  he  was 
an  industrious  plodder  and  fond  of  study.  He  has 
read  much  but  absorbed  little ;  he  is  well  educated 
in  the  narrow  sense  of  the  schoolmaster,  but  he  has 
no  philosophic  background;  his  is  the  parasitic 
mind  that  sucks  sustenance  from  the  brains  of 
others  and  gives  nothing  in  return.  He  is  without 
the  slightest  imagination  and  is  devoid  of  all  sense 
of  humor;  and  without  these  two,  imagination, 
which  is  the  gift  of  the  poet,  and  humor,  which  is 
the  dower  of  the  philosopher,  no  man  can  see  life 
whole. 

He  has  genius  almost  for  misunderstanding  pub 
lic  sentiment.  To  him  may  be  applied  Junius' 
characterization  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton:  "  It  is  not 
that  you  do  wrong  by  design,  but  that  you  should 
never  do  right  by  mistake.'* 

With  all  these  defects,  the  defects  of  heritage 

141 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

and  environment  and  temperament,  so  much  vvas 
expected  from  Mr.  Lodge,  and  so  much  he  might 
have  done,  that  it  is  a  disappointment  he  has  ac 
complished  so  little.  He  has  been  thirty-four  years 
in  Congress,  and  his  career  can  be  summed  up  in 
three  achievements — the  Force  Bill,  the  attempt 
to  wreck  England  by  driving  her  to  silver  coinage, 
and  the  part  he  took  in  defeating  the  treaty  of 
peace  with  Germany.  The  Force  Bill  and  the 
silver  amendment  his  biographers  have  charitably 
forgotten;  will  the  future  biographer  deal  as  gently 
with  the  closing  years  of  his  life?  And  if  so,  what 
material  will  the  biographer  have? 

Macaulay,  reviewing  Barere's  Memoirs — and 
allowing  for  the  difference  in  time  and  manners 
and  morals  there  is  a  strange  similarity  between 
the  leader  of  the  French  Revolution  and  the  leader 
of  the  Senate — said,  "  We  now  propose  to  do  him, 
by  the  blessing  of  God,  full  and  signal  justice." 

We  think  we  may  say,  with  proper  humility, 
that,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  we  have  done  Senator 
Henry  Cabot  Lodge  full  and  signal  justice. 


142 


Harris  and  Ewing 


BERNARD    MANNES    BARUCH 


BERNARD  M.  BARUCH 

A  CLEVER  woman  magazine  writer  once  asked 
Bernard  M.  Baruch  for  some  information  about  the 
peace  treaty.  The  question  was  not  in  his  special 
field,  the  economic  sections  of  the  treaty,  and  he 
told  her  so. 

"It  took  him  one  sentence  to  say  that  he  could 
not  tell  me  what  I  wanted  to  know, "  she  described 
the  interview  afterward.  "And  then  he  talked  to 
me  for  two  hours  about  himself.  He  told  me  of  his 
start  in  life  as  a  three-dollar-a-week  clerk,  how  rich 
he  was,  his  philosophy  of  life;  how  you  should 
recognize  defeat  when  it  was  coming,  accept  it 
before  it  was  complete  and  overwhelming  and  start 
out  afresh,  how  liberal  and  advanced  were  his 
social  views,  how  with  all  his  wealth  he  was  ready 
to  accept  a  capital  tax  as  perhaps  the  best  way  out 
of  the  bog  in  which  the  war  had  left  the  world,  how 
democratic  he  was  in  his  relations  with  his  em 
ployees  and  his  servants.  It  all  seemed  as  amazing 

to  145 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

to  him  as  if  he  were  describing  someone  else,  or  as 
if  it  had  just  happened  the  day  before." 

Perhaps  it  is  only  to  women  and  to  journalists 
that  men  talk  so  frankly  about  themselves,  to  the 
most  romantic  and  best  trained  listening  sex  and 
profession,  who  perforce  survey  the  heights  from 
below.  But  this  young  woman's  experience  was, 
I  have  reason  to  believe,  a  common  one. 

Is  it  vanity?  You  say  that  a  man  who  talks  so 
much  about  himself  must  be  vain.  To  conclude 
that  he  is  vain  is  not  to  understand  Mr.  Baruch. 
Is  a  child  vain  when  it  brings  some  little  childish 
accomplishment,  some  infantile  drawing  on  paper, 
and  delightedly  and  frankly  marvels  at  what  he  has 
done?  It  is  given  to  children  and  to  the  naive 
openly  to  wonder  at  themselves  without  vanity, 
with  a  deep  underlying  sense  of  humility,  and  in 
Mr.  Baruch's  case  the  unaffected  delight  in  himself 
proceeds  from  real  humility. 

After  twenty-five  years  in  the  jungle  of  Wall 
Street,  there  is — contradictions  multiply  in  his 
case — much  of  the  child  about  Mr.  Baruch,  simple, 
trustful — outside  of  Wall  Street, — incapable  of 
concealment, — outside  of  Wall  Street — of  that 
which  art  has  taught  the  rest  of  us  to  conceal.  His 
humility  makes  him  wonder;  his  naivete  makes  him 

146 


BERNARD  M.  BARUCH 

talk  quite  frankly,  unrestrained  by  the  conventions 
that  balk  others.  After  all,  is  not  wondering  at 
yourself  a  sign  of  humility?  A  vain  man,  become 
great  by  luck,  by  force  of  circumstances,  by  the 
possession  of  gifts  which  he  does  not  himself  fully 
understand,  would  still  take  himself  for  granted. 
He  would  not  be  a  romance  to  himself,  but  a  solid, 
unassailable  fact. 

For  Baruch  the  great  romance  is  Baruch,  the 
astonishing  plaything  of  fate,  who  started  life  as  a 
three-dollar-a-week  broker's  clerk;  made  millions, 
lost  millions,  made  millions  again,  lost  millions 
again;  finally,  still  young,  quit  Wall  Street  with  a 
fortune  that  left  the  game  of  the  market  dull  and 
commonplace,  seeking  a  new  occupation  for  his 
energies;  became  during  the  war  next  to  the  Presi 
dent,  the  most  powerful  man  in  Washington; 
emerged  from  the  war,  which  wrecked  most  reputa 
tions,  with  a  large  measure  of  credit,  prepared  by 
the  amazing  past  for  an  equally  amazing  future. 
A  career  like  that  makes  it  impossible  for  the  man 
who  knows  it  best  not  to  expect  anything.  Why 
not  the  "  Disraeli  of  America?  "•  —a  phrase  he  once, 
rather  confidentially,  employed  concerning  his 
anticipated  future. 

Did  you  ever  see  a  portrait  bust  smiling,  not 

147 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

softly  with  the  eyes  or  with  a  slight  relaxation  of 
the  mouth,  but  firmly,  definitely,  lastingly  smiling, 
with  some  inward  source  of  satisfaction?  Look  at 
Jo  Davidson's  bust  of  Baruch,  among  the  famous 
men  at  the  Peace  Conference. 

I  once  saw  the  various  sketches  in  clay  that  went 
to  the  making  of  that  portrait — the  subject  was 
proving  elusive  to  the  sculptor.  There  were  two 
obvious  traits  to  be  represented;  the  unusual  knot 
in  the  brow  between  the  eyes  and  the  smile,  with 
out  which  it  was  evident  that  you  had  not  Baruch. 
The  extraordinary  concentration  in  the  forehead 
was  easy  enough  to  transfer  to  clay;  but  the  smile 
kept  defying  the  artist.  When  a  smile  was  traced 
in  the  clay  it  softened  the  face  out  of  character, 
destroyed  that  intensity  which  the  central  massing 
of  the  brow  denoted;  and  when  the  smile  was  de 
leted  the  face  lost  all  its  brilliance,  became  merely 
intense,  concentrated,  racial,  acquisitive  perhaps, 
clearly  not  Mr.  Baruch's  face.  Ultimately  the 
sculptor  succeeded  in  wedding  a  smile  to  that  brow, 
and  the  bust  went  on  exhibition  with  those  of  Wil 
son,  Foch,  House,  Clemenceau,  and  the  others;  but 
the  union  was  never  more  than  a  compromise,  a 
marriage  of  convenience  for  the  artist. 

That  smile  is  as  inevitable  a  part  of  Baruch  as  his 

148 


BERNARD  M.  BARUCH 

engaging  naivet6  in  talking  about  himself.  It  is 
always  there,  brilliant,  unrelated  to  circumstances. 
It  does  not  spring  from  a  sense  of  humor, — Mr. 
Baruch,  like  the  rest  of  the  successful,  has  not  a 
marked  sense  of  humor;  a  sense  of  the  irony  of  fate 
he  has,  perhaps,  but  not  more.  It  does  not  denote 
gaiety,  nor  sympathy,  nor  satire;  it  is  not  kind  nor 
yet  unkind;  it  does  not  relax  the  features,  which 
remain  tense  as  ever  even  when  smiling;  it  suggests 
satisfaction,  self-confidence,  and  a  secret  inner 
source  of  contentment.  It  is  with  Mr.  Baruch  when 
he  is  tired,  or  ought  to  be  tired;  the  romance  of 
Baruch  is  an  internal  spring  of  refreshment.  It 
does  not  leave  him  when  he  is  angry,  if  he  is  ever 
angry ;  the  romance  of  Baruch  diverts  him.  Though 
always  there,  it  is  not  a  fixed  smile,  a  mask,  some 
thing  worn  for  the  undoing  of  Wall  Street;  it  is  a 
real  smile.  Somewhere  subconsciously  there  abides 
the  picture  of  the  poor  clerk  become  amazingly 
rich,  of  power  in  Washington,  of  a  beckoning  future 
with  possibilities  as  extraordinary  as  the  wonders  of 
the  past.  Life  is  not  logical,  dull,  commonplace,  a 
tissue  of  cause  and  effect;  it  proceeds  delightfully 
by  daily  miracles.  The  American  Disraeli  is  no 
further  away  to-day  than  was  the  Baruch  of  to-day 
from  the  Baruch  of  yesterday.  Enough  to  account 

149 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

for  a  smile  in  marble,  bronze,  or  in  whatever  metal 
the  human  face  is  made  of. 

Take  the  miracle  of  the  War  Administration.  It 
was  not  vanity  but  humility,  the  kind  of  humility 
that  would  have  saved  Wilson,  that  served  Mr. 
Baruch  there.  He  came  to  Washington  out  of  Wall 
Street  and  Wall  Street  is  always  anathema.  More 
than  that  he  came  out  of  that  part  of  Wall  Street 
which  is  beyond  the  pale;  he  did  not  belong  to  the 
right  monied  set  there;  which  is  to  be  anathema 
with  that  part  of  the  community  to  which  Wall 
Street  itself  is  not  anathema ;  moreover  he  had  been 
unjustly  accused  in  connection  with  the  famous 
Wall  Street  "leak."  And  he  entered  an  adminis 
tration  which  was  the  center  of  much  prejudice  and 
hatred.  Yet  he  was  modest  enough,  however,  to 
assume  that  his  personality  did  not  count,  that  it 
was  the  work  to  be  done  which  mattered,  and  that 
he  could  depend  upon  the  friendliness  both  of  the 
Republicans  and  of  the  great  industrial  interests 
of  the  country  to  that  work  if  it  should  be  properly 
done. 

The  belief  Mr.  Wilson  has  and  a  much  lesser 
man,  Hiram  Johnson,  has,  that  men  are  thinking 
exclusively  about  them  personally  and  not  about 
the  causes  they  advocate  or  the  measures  they 

150 


BERNARD  M.  BARUCH 

propose  is  a  more  dangerous  form  of  vanity  than 
the  habit  of  admiring  oneself  audibly.  It  requires 
collossal  egotism  to  imagine  the  existence  of  many 
enemies  and  Mr.  Baruch  is  genuinely  humble  in 
the  matter  of  enmity.  After  watching  him  during 
the  war,  in  an  administration  which  was  enemy 
mad,  I  fancy  he  counts  his  genuine  foes  on  the 
fingers  of  one  hand.  Moreover  he  was  quite  im 
personal  about  his  task.  He  did  not  do  everything 
himself  on  the  theory  that  no  one  else  was  quite 
big  enough  to  do  it.  There  is  no  practical  snobbism 
about  him.  His  knowledge  of  the  industries  of  the 
country  was  that  of  the  speculator;  it  was  not  that 
of  the  practical  industrialist,  and  he  knew  it. 

He  surrounded  himself  with  the  best  men  he 
could  find.  He  trusted  them  implicitly,  his  habit 
being  not  to  distrust  men  until  he  finds  that  they 
can  be  trusted  but  to  trust  them  unless  he  finds 
that  they  cannot  be  trusted — also  a  modest  and 
naive  trait.  He  was  never  tired  of  praising  Legg, 
Replogle,  Summers,  and  the  other  business  men 
whom  he  brought  to  Washington,  praising  himself,  of 
course,  for  his  skill  in  choosing  them — he  never 
achieves  self-forgetfulness — but  giving  them  full 
credit  for  the  work  of  the  War  Industries  Board. 
And  he  inspired  an  extraordinary  loyalty  among  his 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

associates,  big  and  little.  He  treated  the  Republi 
cans  as  he  treated  big  business  as  if  all  had  only  one 
interest,  above  politics  and  personalities,  and  that 
was  to  win  the  war.  And  when  President  Wilson, 
in  response  to  Republican  criticism  of  the  war 
organization,  gave  him  real  power  to  mobilize 
American  industry,  the  Republicans  applauded  the 
bestowal  of  authority  as  constructive  and  took 
credit  to  themselves  for  accomplishing  it. 

Baruch  and  Hoover,  alone  of  the  business  men 
who  came  to  Washington  during  the  war  achieved 
real  successes  in  the  higher  positions,  and  he 
showed  vastly  the  greater  capacity  of  the  two  to 
operate  in  a  political  atmosphere.  A  man  who  was 
nothing  but  a  Wall  Street  speculator,  not  an  indus 
trial  organizer,  organized  successfully  the  biggest 
industrial  combination  the  world  has  ever  seen;  a 
man  who  was  suspect  of  American  business  got  on 
admirably  with  American  business,  and  a  man  who 
had  not  been  in  politics  accomplished  the  impossi 
ble  task  of  adjusting  himself  to  work  under  political 
conditions.  It  is  another  chapter  in  the  romance 
of  Baruch. 

He  cannot  explain  it,  so  why  should  not  he 
wonder  about  it  quite  openly  and  quite  delightedly, 
with  all  his  engaging  naivet6?  That  inability  to 

152 


BERNARD  M.  BARUCH 

explain  anything  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  Mr. 
Baruch.  When  you  begin  to  apprehend  it  you 
begin  to  see  why  he  is  a  romance  to  himself.  He 
cannot  explain  himself  to  himself,  nor  to  anyone 
else,  no  matter  how  much  he  tries.  And  even  more, 
he  cannot  explain  his  opinions,  his  conclusions,  his 
decisions  to  anyone  in  the  world  with  all  the  words 
at  his  command.  He  can  never  give  reasons. 
Mentally  nature  has  left  him,  after  a  manner, 
incommunicado.  His  mind  does  not  proceed  as 
other  men's  minds  do. 

The  author  of  the  Mirrors  of  Downing  Street 
describes  Lord  Northcliffe's  mind  as  "  discontinu 
ous.  "  If  I  had  never  talked  to  Lord  Northcliffe  I 
should  be  led  to  suppose  that  his  mind  resembled 
Mr.  Baruch's.  But  the  British  journalist's  mental 
operations  are  a  model  of  order  and  continuity 
compared  to  those  of  the  former  American  War 
Industries  Chairman.  Like  the  heroes  of  the  an 
cient  poems  Mr.  Baruch's  mind  has  the  faculty  of 
invisibility.  You  see  it  here;  a  moment  later  you 
see  it  there,  and  for  the  life  of  you  cannot  tell  how 
it  got  from  here  to  there,  a  gift  of  incalculability 
which  must  have  been  of  great  service  in  Wall 
Street,  but  which  does  not  promote  understanding 
nor  communication.  And  the  more  Mr.  Baruch 

153 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

tries  to  give  you  the  connecting  links  between  here 
and  there  the  worse  off  you  are,  both  of  you. 

The  ordinary  mind  is  logical  and  is  confined 
within  the  three  dimensions  of  the  syllogism.  You 
watch  it  readily  enough  shut  in  its  little  cage  whose 
walls  are  the  major  premise,  the  minor  premise,  and 
the  conclusion.  There  is  no  escape  as  we  say,  from 
the  conclusion.  There  is  no  escape  anywhere. 

But  Mr.  Baruch's  mind  escapes  easily.  It  pos 
sesses  the  secret  of  some  fourth  mental  dimension, 
known  only  to  the  naive  and  the  illogical,  or  per 
haps  supralogical.  He  has  brilliant  intuitions, 
hunches,  premonitions,  the  acute  perceptions  of 
some  two  or  three  extra  senses  that  have  been  bred 
or  schooled  out  of  other  men. 

Perhaps  he  is  like  Lloyd  George,  who  is  not 
logical  but  achieves  his  successes  through  two  or 
three  senses  which  ordinary  men  have  not ;  however, 
unlike  Lloyd  George,  he  cannot  simulate  logic  and, 
after  jumping  to  his  conclusions,  reduce  them  to 
the  understanding  of  the  three-dimensional  mind. 
It  is  a  grief  to  him  that  he  cannot ;  for  if  he  could 
make  a  speech,  that  is  to  say,  translate  himself, 
that  figure  of  Disraeli  would,  he  thinks,  be  less 
remote.  But  when  your  mental  operations  are  a 
succession  of  miracles,  you  may  have  brilliant  in- 

154 


BERNARD  M.  BARUCH 

tuitions  and  extraordinary  prevision  about  the 
mineral  supplies  necessary  to  win  the  war, — which 
he  had — you  may  have  wonder,  like  the  naive  and 
the  poets,  about  that  extraordinary  thing  yourself, 
or  about  that  still  more  extraordinary  thing  which 
is  life  or  destiny,  but  you  cannot  move  the 
masses. 

Still  there  are  compensations.  A  perfectly  logical 
mind  would  have  explained  all  the  wonder  away, 
reduced  the  miracle  of  personality  to  a  stolid  opera 
tion  of  cause  and  effect,  quite  self-approbatively 
no  doubt,  and  made  Mr.  Baruch  talk  of  himself  as 
the  rest  of  the  great  do,  modestly,  after  this 
fashion:  "Behold  me!  I  am  what  I  am  because 
when  I  was  nine  years  old  I  saved  nine  cents  and 
resolved  then  and  there  always  to  save  as  many 
cents  each  year  as  I  was  years  old.  Young  man, 
save!11 

There  is  no  fun  in  being  not  a  wonder  but  a  copy 
book.  And  a  perfectly  logical  mind  would  flirt 
with  Disraeli  warily.  It  would  say,  "One  does  not 
at  fifty  change  from  business  to  politics  with  suc 
cess.  Disraeli  didn't  start  out  in  Wall  Street.  As 
the  Germans  say,  'what  will  become  vinegar  sours 
early.™ 

Mr.  Baruch  slips  easily  through  the  three  sides 

i55 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

of  this  reasoning.  Life  is  not  logical.  Fate  is  not 
logical.  He  is  not  logical. 

He  has  had  his  taste  of  public  life  under  Wilson 
and  he  wants  more.  I  venture  to  say  that  he  would 
give  every  one  of  his  many  millions  and  be  as  poor, 
well,  poorer  than  any  member  of  the  present 
cabinet,  to  be  in  the  place  Mr.  Hughes  occupies 
to-day. 

Everyone  who  knows  him  has  heard  him  say 
that  when  he  entered  office  he  resolved  to  quit 
business  because  he  learned  so  much  as  head  of 
the  War  Industries  Board  that  it  would  be  im 
proper  for  him  ever  to  go  into  the  market  again. 
There  is  more  to  it  than  that;  public  life  has  given 
him  a  profound  distaste  for  mere  money-making. 
He  wrote  to  Senator  Kenyon  the  other  day  that  he 
had  not  made  a  dollar  since  he  went  to  work  for  the 
government.  I  believe  that  to  be  true  for  I  have 
found  him  an  extraordinarily  truthful  and  honest 
man.  He  has  that  desire  for  public  distinction 
which  is  so  often  characteristic  of  his  race.  He  has 
the  idealism,  a  characteristic  also  of  the  race  which 
gave  to  the  world  two  great  religions.  He  has  the 
same  passion  for  public  service  now  that  he  once 
had  for  the  market.  And  he  belongs  to  a  race, 
which,  in  spite  of  all  our  national  catholicity  on  the 

156 


BERNARD  M.  BARUCH 

subject  of  races,  has  never  yet  produced  its  Dis 
raeli  in  America,  and  to  a  party  out  of  power, 
perhaps  for  a  long  time,  and  he  spent  his  youth 
learning  a  trade  which  is  not  the  trade  he  would 
follow  now. 

All  of  this  accounts  for  his  restlessness.  He  is 
still  youthful  and  has  enormous  energies  and  no 
occupation  for  them.  He  loves  personal  publicity 
and  has  an  instinct  for  it,  not  so  keen  as  Hoover's  or 
Will  H.  Hays',  but  still  keen. 

Whither  shall  he  turn?  To  the  organization  of 
his  party?  There  he  may  buy  the  right  to  be 
lampooned  and  in  the  end,  if  his  party  succeeds,  to 
be  introduced  into  the  Cabinet  apologetically,  as 
Hays  and  Daugherty  were,  on  the  plea  that  the 
President  must  appoint  a  number  of  party  workers. 
To  the  Senate?  It  is  a  body  which  affords  escape 
from  the  boredom  of  small  town  life  for  men  who 
have  grown  rich  on  the  frontier  or  in  the  dull 
Middle  West.  It  carries  with  it  an  excuse  to  live  in 
Washington,  some  social  position  there,  and  a  title 
envied  in  Marion,  Reno,  Butte,  or  Salt  Lake  City. 
Senators  who  start  young  serve  long  and  obediently, 
suppressing  all  their  natural  instincts  for  self- 
expression,  and  attain  if  they  are  lucky  the  scant 
distinction  of  a  committee  chairmanship  in  a  legis- 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

lature  that  has  steadily  tended  toward  submergence. 
To  the  House?  Individuals  are  lost  in  the  House. 
And  the  Presidency  comes  to  few,  and  by  chance. 

Knowing  his  ambition  for  public  distinction  and 
his  wealth,  men  go  to  him  every  day  to  sell  him  the 
road  to  power  and  influence,  and,  if  you  will,  public 
service.  Let  him  have  the  Democratic  organiza 
tion  on  condition  of  paying  its  debts  and  financing 
its  activities.  One  faction  of  the  Democratic  party 
recently  sought  control,  spreading  the  understand 
ing  that  Mr.  Baruch  would,  in  the  event  of  its  suc 
cess,  open  wide  his  pocket  book.  After  the  meeting 
of  the  National  Committee  at  which  this  faction 
met  its  defeat  I  said  to  a  prominent  member  of  the 
victorious  group:  "Now  that  you  have  won  you 
will  probably  get  Baruch's  money.  He  is  restless, 
eager  to  find  an  outlet  for  his  energies,  less  in 
terested  in  any  personality  than  in  his  party. 
Hang  on  and  wait  and  he  must  come  to  you." 

"Do  you  know,"  he  replied,  lowering  his  voice 
confidentially,  "That  is  just  the  way  I  diagnose  it." 

And  at  this  very  time  the  Republicans,  hearing 
much  of  Mr.  Baruch's  money  and  its  use  to  build 
up  such  an  intensive  organization  for  the  Demo 
crats,  as  Chairman  Hays  with  a  million  or  two  at 
his  disposal  had  erected  for  them,  considered 

158 


BERNARD  M;  BARUCH 

seriously  whether  or  not  it  would  not  be  wise  them 
selves  to  occupy  Mr.  Baruch's  energies  and  divert 
his  ambitions  away  from  party  organization.  They 
debated  putting  Mr.  Baruch  on  the  commission  to 
reorganize  the  executive  departments  of  the  govern 
ment.  All  had  their  eyes  on  the  same  ambition 
and  the  same  wealth! 

Several  daily  newspapers  in  New  York,  and  I 
know  not  how  many  magazines  and  weeklies,  have 
been  offered  at  one  time  or  another  to  Mr.  Baruch, 
for  it  is  known  that  one  of  his  ideas  of  public  service 
is  to  own  and  edit  a  great  liberal  journal,  a  "  Man 
chester  Guardian"  of  America.  But  an  oppor 
tunity  to  buy  a  newspaper  in  New  York  is  an  oppor 
tunity  to  invest  $3,000,000  or  $4,000,000,  to  lose 
$500,000  or  more  for  several  years  thereafter  and 
to  become  the  national  figure  that  Mr.  Ochs  is,  or 
Mr.  Reid  is,  or  Mr.  Munsey  is,  certainly  something 
far  short  of  the  American  Disraeli  or  even  the 
Baruch  of  the  War  Industries  Board. 

Mr.  Baruch,  you  will  observe,  has  no  vulgar 
illusions  about  what  money  will  buy.  He  likes 
money.  It  brings  with  it  a  certain  personal  en 
largement.  It  adds  to  the  romance  of  himself  in 
his  own  eyes,  as  well  as  in  the  eyes  of  others.  It 
procures  the  flattering  ears  of  journalists,  and  a 

159 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

place  on  front  pages,  and,  if  one  inclines  toward 
ostentation,  even  the  ownership  of  a  newspaper 
itself. 

But  money  will  not  buy  a  commanding  place  in 
public  life.  And  even  if  it  would  buy  such  a  place 
he  would  not  be  content  to  do  other  than  earn  one. 
He  wants  to  repeat  the  thrills  of  his  youth  in  the 
market,  in  the  thrills  of  a  second  youth  in  Wash 
ington.  He  is  incurably  romantic. 

To  sum  him  all  up  in  a  sentence — he  has  an 
extraordinary  sense  of  wonder  and  an  unequalled 
sense  of  reality,  the  sense  of  wonder  directed  to 
ward  himself,  the  sense  of  reality  directed  largely 
but  not  exclusively  elsewhere. 


160 


U.  and  U 


ELIHU    ROOT 


ELIHU  ROOT 

ELIHU  ROOT  might  have  been  so  much  publicly 
and  has  been  so  little  that  a  moral  must  hang  some 
where  upon  his  public  career. 

He  might  have  been  many  things.  He  might 
have  been  President  of  the  United  States  if  his 
party  ever  could  have  been  persuaded  to  nominate 
him.  He  might  have  been  one  of  the  great  Chief 
Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  if  a  President  could 
have  been  persuaded  to  appoint  him.  He  might 
have  given  to  the  United  States  Senate  that  weight 
and  influence  which  have  disappeared  from  it,  if 
he  had  had  a  passion  for  public  service.  He  might 
have  been  Secretary  of  State  in  the  most  momen 
tous  period  of  American  foreign  relations  if  a  cer 
tain  homely  instinct  in  Mr.  Harding  had  not  led 
him  to  prefer  the  less  brilliant  Mr.  Hughes.  He 
might  have  made  history.  But  he  has  not.  Out  of 
his  eight  years  in  the  Cabinet  and  six  years  in  the 
Senate  nothing  constructive  came  that  will  give  his 

163 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

name  a  larger  place  in  history  than  that  of  Rufus 
Choate,  another  remarkable  advocate  who  was 
once  Attorney  General. 

Distrust  has  always  barred  his  way,  distrust  of  a 
mind  and  character  to  which  problems  appear  as 
exercises  in  ingenuity  rather  than  questions  of 
right  and  justice.  His  greatest  opportunity  for 
constructive  statesmanship  was  offered  in  the 
making  of  the  New  York  State  constitution.  But 
when  it  became  known  that  Mr.  Root  had  domi 
nated  the  Constitutional  Convention,  that  the  pro 
posed  constitution  was  Mr.  Root's  constitution, 
that  was  enough;  the  voters  rejected  it  in  the 
referendum. 

Distrust  spoiled  the  mission  to  Russia  during  the 
war.  The  Russians  distrusted  him  while  he  was 
with  them.  President  Wilson  distrusted  his  report 
when  he  returned.  And  Mr.  Wilson's  successor 
equally  distrusted  him  when  he  chose  a  man  to 
finish  the  work  which  Mr.  Wilson  had  badly  done 
or  to  correct  the  work  that  Mr.  Wilson  had  left 
undone  at  Paris. 

Light  on  President  Harding's  attitude  toward 
Mr.  Root  is  thrown  by  an  incident  at  Marion 
during  the  campaign.  The  Republican  candidate 
had  made  his  speech  of  August  28th  in  which  he 

164 


ELIHU  ROOT 

indicated  his  views  upon  the  League  of  Nations. 
Two  days  later  a  newspaper  arrived  in  Marion 
containing  a  dispatch  from  abroad  where  Mr.  Root 
then  was,  at  work  upon  the  international  court. 

The  correspondent  represented  Mr.  Root  as 
"amazed"  at  the  position  Mr.  Harding  had  taken. 

The  candidate  came  to  the  headquarters  early 
that  morning.  One  of  the  headquarters  attaches 
handed  him  a  copy  of  the  paper.  Mr.  Harding 
read  the  dispatch  and  was  angry. 

"That  man  Root,"  he  exclaimed,  "has  done 
more  harm  to  the  Republican  party  than  any  other 
man  in  it !  He  is  always  pursuing  some  end  of  his 
own  or  of  some  outside  interest .  ' '  He  started  away ; 
then  turned  back,  still  angry,  and  added:  "You 
remember  the  Panama  Canal  tolls  incident.  That 
was  an  example  of  the  kind  of  trouble  he  has  always 
been  making  for  the  party." 

Many  reasons  have  been  given  why  the  President 
passed  over  the  obvious  man  for  Secretary  of  State. 
Mr.  Root  himself,  who  would  have  taken  the  place 
gladly  as  an  opportunity  for  his  extremely  keen 
intelligence,  but  who  did  not  seek  it,  thinks  that  the 
Senate,  flushed  with  its  recent  victory  over  Mr. 
Wilson  and  desiring  itself  to  dominate  foreign  re 
lations,  conspired  to  prevent  his  choice.  The 

165 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

Senators  did  oppose  Mr.  Root,  but  their  lack  of 
influence  with  the  President  has  been  sufficiently 
exposed  by  events. 

The  real  obstacle  to  Mr.  Root's  appointment 
was  Mr.  Harding's  distrust  of  him,  the  instinctive 
feeling  of  a  simple  direct  nature  against  a  mind  too 
quick,  too  clever,  too  adroit,  too  invisible  in  many 
of  its  operations.  Mr.  Harding,  being  common 
place  himself,  likes  a  more  commonplace  kind  of 
greatness  than  Mr.  Root's.  Those  who  were  close 
to  him  said  the  President  feared  that  Mr.  Root 
would  "put  something  over  on  him."  A  certain 
moral  quality  in  Mr.  Hughes  outweighed  Mr. 
Root's  special  experience  and  wider  reputation. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  used  to  tell  a  story  boastfully  of 
his  own  practicality  which  throws  much  light  on 
Mr.  Root  and  upon  the  reason  for  Mr.  Root's  com 
parative  failure  as  a  public  man. 

"  When  I  took  Panama, "  he  would  say,  "I  found 
all  the  members  of  my  Cabinet  helpful  except  one. 
Mr.  Root  readily  found  numerous  precedents. 
Mr.  Taft  was  sympathetic  and  gave  every  assist 
ance  possible.  Mr.  Knox  alone  was  silent.  At 
last  I  turned  to  him  in  the  Cabinet  meeting  and  I 
said,  'I  should  like  to  hear  from  the  Attorney 
General  on  the  legality  of  what  we  are  doing.'  Mr. 

166 


ELIHU  ROOT 

Knox  looked  up  and  said,  '  Mr.  President,  if  I  were 
you  I  should  not  have  the  slightest  taint  of  legality 
about  the  whole  affair/ ' 

Such  was  Mr.  Root.  Public  questions  always 
were  likely  to  occur  to  him  first  as  exercises  in 
mental  adroitness  rather  than  as  moral  problems. 
His  extremely  agile  mind  finds  its  chief  pleasure  in 
its  own  agility.  Then  he  was  always  the  advocate, 
always  instinctively  devoting  himself  to  bolstering 
up  another  man's  cause  for  him. 

"  He  is  a  first  class  second, "  said  Senator  Penrose, 
objecting  to  him  as  a  candidate  for  President  at  the 
Republican  Convention  of  1916,  "but  he  is  not  his 


own  man." 


He  is  always  someone  else's  mouthpiece  and 
publicly  he  is  chiefly  remembered  as  Mr.  Roose 
velt's  mouthpiece.  When  he  came  to  New  York 
and  made  the  speech  that  elected  Hughes  Governor 
and  made  possible  Hughes  as  Secretary  of  State 
he  said,  "I  speak  for  the  President."  He  equally 
spoke  for  the  President  when  he  delivered  that 
other  remembered  address,  warning  the  States  that 
unless  they  mended  their  ways  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  would  absorb  their  vitality. 

The  law  is  a  parasitic  profession  and  Mr.  Root's 
public  career  is  parasitic.  He  lacks  originality,  he 

167 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

lacks  passion — there  is  no  p.ace  for  passion  in  that 
clear  mind — he  lacks  force.  He  elucidates  other 
men's  ideas,  works  out  or  puts  into  effect  their 
policies,  presents  their  case,  is,  by  temperament,  by 
reason  of  gifts  amounting  almost  to  genius,  of  de 
fects  that  go  with  those  gifts  always  and  every 
where,  the  lawyer.  His  public  career  has  been 
controlled  by  this  circumstance. 

I  doubt  if  he  ever  had  a  real  love  of  public  life. 
He  turned  to  it  late,  after  he  had  made  his  success 
in  the  profession  of  his  choice,  and  he  carried  over 
into  it  the  habits  of  the  law.  He  always  seemed 
to  be  taking  cases  for  the  public.  He  took  a  case 
for  Mr.  McKinley  as  Secretary  of  War  because  the 
War  Department  needed  reorganization  and  the 
case  promised  to  be  interesting.  He  took  a  case 
for  Mr.  Roosevelt  as  Secretary  of  State  because 
Mr.  Roosevelt  was  the  most  interesting  client  in 
the  world.  He  took  a  case  for  New  York  State,  to 
remodel  its  constitution,  a  case  that  ended  dis 
astrously.  He  took  a  case  for  Mr.  Wilson  in  Russia 
and  another,  the  League  of  Nations,  to  form  its 
international  court  for  it.  He  was  willing  to  take  a 
case  for  Mr.  Harding  to  make  a  going  concern  of  the 
world  for  him  following  the  smash-up  of  the  war, 
something  like  the  task  of  counsel  of  a  receiver 

168 


ELIHU  ROOT 

ship,    the    most   interesting   receivership    of    all 
time. 

For  a  few  years  Mr.  Roosevelt  made  public  life 
interesting  to  Mr.  Root  who,  it  looked  then,  might 
devote  the  rest  of  his  career  to  national  affairs. 

It  was  a  sparkling  period  for  America.  We  have 
never  had  an  "age"  in  the  history  of  this  country 
like  the  age  of  Elizabeth  or  the  age  of  Louis  XIV, 
or  the  age  of  Lorenzo,  the  Magnificent;  time  is  too 
short  and  democracy  too  rigid  for  such  splendors; 
but  the  nearest  equivalent  to  one  was  the  "age," 
let  us  call  it  that,  of  Theodore  Roosevelt.  There 
was  the  central  figure — an  age  must  have  a  central 
figure — a  buoyant  personality  with  a  Renaissance 
zest  for  life,  and  a  Renaissance  curiosity  about  all 
things  known,  and  unknown,  and  a  boundless  ca 
pacity  for  vitalizing  everyone  and  everything  with 
which  he  came  in  contact. 

Dull  moments  were  unknown.  Knighthood  was 
once  more  in  flower,  wearing  frock  coats  and  high 
hats  and  reading  all  about  itself  in  the  daily  press. 
Lances  were  tilted  at  malefactors  of  great  wealth, 
in  jousts  where  few  were  unhorsed  and  no  blood 
spilled.  Fair  maidens  of  popular  rights  were  res 
cued;  great  deeds  of  valor  done.  Legends  were 
created,  the  legend  of  Leonard  Wood,  somewhat 

169 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

damaged  in  the  last  campaign,  the  legend  of  the 
Tennis  Cabinet,  with  its  Garfields  and  its  Pinchots, 
now  to  be  read  about  only  in  the  black  letter  books 
of  the  early  twentieth  century,  and  the  legend  of 
Elihu  Root,  still  supported  in  a  measure  by  the 
evidences  of  his  highly  acute  intelligence,  but  still 
like  everything  else  of  those  bright  days,  largely  a 
legend. 

Roosevelt,  the  Magnificent,  made  men  great  with 
a  word,  and  his  words  were  many.  His  great  were 
many  likewise,  great  statesmen,  great  public 
servants,  great  writers,  great  magazine  editors, 
great  cowboys  from  the  West,  great  saints  and 
great  sinners,  great  combinations  of  wealth  and 
great  laws  to  curb  them;  everything  in  scale  and 
that  a  great  scale.  Mr.  Root  acquired  his  taste  for 
public  life  in  that  "age"  just  as  Mr.  Hoover,  Mr. 
Baruch  and  a  dozen  others  did  theirs  in  the  moving 
period  of  the  Great  War.  It  is  easy  to  understand 
how. 

Like  all  remarkable  ages  this  age  was  preceded 
by  discoveries.  The  United  States  had  just  fought 
a  war  which  had  ended  in  a  great  victory,  over 
Spain.  The  American  people  were  elated  by  their 
achievement,  aware  of  their  greatness,  talked  much 
and  surely  of  "destiny, "  the  period  in  Washington 

170 


ELIHU  ROOT 

being  but  a  reflection  of  their  own  mood.  Their 
mental  horizon  had  been  immensely  widened  by 
the  possession,  gained  in  the  war,  of  some  islands 
in  the  Pacific  whose  existence  we  had  never  heard 
of  before. 

Until  that  time  there  had  been  for  us  only  two 
nations  in  the  world,  the  United  States  and  Eng 
land,  the  country  with  which  we  had  fought  two 
wars,  and  innumerable  national  campaigns.  His 
torically  there  had  of  course  been  another  country 
as  friendly  as  England  had  sometimes  been  inimi 
cal,  France,  but  France  had  ceased  to  be  a  nation 
and  became  a  succession  of  revolutions. 

Manila  Bay  had  been  a  series  of  revelations, 
besides  teaching  us  that  Philippines  is  spelled  with 
two  "ps"  and  only  one  "1."  We  had  there  dis 
covered  Germany,  a  country  whose  admirals  had 
bad  sea  manners.  We  knew  at  once  that  our  next 
war  would  be  with  Germany,  although  the  day 
before  Dewey  said,  "You  may  fire  when  you  are 
ready,  Gridley, "  we  would  as  soon  have  thought 
that  our  next  war  would  be  with  Patagonia. 

There  too  we  had  an  interesting  and  surprising 
experience  with  England,  hitherto  known  chiefly 
for  her  constant  designs  on  the  national  dinner  pail. 
She  behaved  in  striking  and  pleasing  contrast  with 

171 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

Germany.  Blood,  on  that  bright  day,  May  I, 
1898,  began  to  be  thicker  than  water.  Learning 
once  more  had  come  out  of  the  East.  From  Manila 
Bay  flowed  such  a  tide  of  new  ideas,  such  a  reassess 
ment  of  old  conceptions  as  had  not  visited  the 
world  since  the  discovery  of  Greek  and  Latin 
letters  put  an  end  to  the  Middle  Ages. 

Perceiving  our  widened  interest,  John  Hay,  as 
Secretary  of  State,  took  our  foreign  relations  on  a 
grand  Cook's  tour  of  the  world.  He  showed  us 
Europe  and  the  Orient.  In  honor  of  Manila  Bay 
he  invented  that  brilliant  fiction,  the  "open  door" 
in  the  East.  Turning  our  attention  to  the  world 
we  discovered  the  General  Staff.  Hitherto  our 
army  had  fought  mostly  with  the  scattered  Indian 
tribes  of  the  West  and  you  cannot  use  a  General 
Staff  in  conducting  six  separate  wars  at  once,  each 
no  bigger  than  a  good-sized  riot.  But  as  Admiral 
Perry  had  opened  the  eyes  of  the  Hermit  Kingdom 
of  Japan,  so  Admiral  whatever-his-name-was  who 
consented  to  be  sunk  by  Dewey,  the  unremembered 
hero  of  this  great  enlightenment,  had  opened  the 
eyes  of  this  Hermit  Republic  of  the  West  to  the 
world  across  the  seas. 

We  had  to  have  a  General  Staff.  Mr.  Root,  as 
Secretary  of  War,  gave  us  one,  faithfully  copied 

172 


ELIHU  ROOT 

from  the  best  European  models.  Roosevelt,  the 
Magnificent,  stood  by  and  said  "Bully."  Every 
thing  was  of  this  order;  so  it  was  to  a  tremendously 
interesting  job  that  Mr.  Root  succeeded  when  he 
took  the  place  of  John  Hay  as  Secretary  of  State. 
The  mood  of  the  hour  was  expansive  and  a  lumi 
nous  personality  pervaded  the  national  life. 

But  public  service  cannot  always  be  so  interest 
ing  as  it  is  at  its  fullest  moments.  The  luminous 
personality  went  out.  And  Mr.  Root's  next  ex 
perience,  in  the  United  States  Senate,  was  dis 
illusioning. 

The  Senate  is  a  body  in  which  you  grow  old,  un 
gracefully  waiting  for  dead  men's  shoes.  The 
infinite  capacity  for  taking  pains  which  Senators 
have  is  not  genius.  If  the  gods  have  been  good  to 
you,  as  they  were  to  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  you  enter 
the  upper  house  young,  a  scholar  and  idealist,  with 
the  hope  of  the  Presidency  as  the  reward  of  gener 
ous  service.  Where  the  race  is  to  the  slow  you  lay 
aside  your  winged  gifts  one  by  one  and  your  ambi 
tion  centers  finally  not  on  the  Presidency  but  on 
some  committee  chairmanship  clung  to  by  a  per 
tinacious  octogenarian. 

Hope  deferred  makes  you  avaricious  of  little 
favors,  until  when  a  British  journalist  writes  of 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

you  as  one  did  of  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  making  his 
speech  before  the  last  Republican  national  conven 
tion  at  Chicago,  that  you  "looked  like  an  elderly 
peer  addressing  a  labor  gathering,"  your  cup  of 
happiness,  is  full  to  the  brim,  as  Henry  Cabot 
Lodge's  was, — whether  because  you  are  compared 
to  a  lord  or  because  other  people,  lesser  than  Sena 
tors,  are  put  into  their  proper  inferior  place.  Mr. 
Lodge  is  the  perfect  flower  of  the  Senate.  It  is  a 
flower  that  does  not  bloom  in  a  night.  It  is  almost 
a  century  plant. 

Into  this  Senate  came  Mr.  Root,  full  stature,  as 
he  might  walk  into  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  preceded  by  his  reputation.  On 
Olympus  one  may  spring  full  grown  like  Minerva 
from  the  head  of  Jove.  But  not  in  the  Senate, 
where  strong  prejudice  exists  against  any  kind  of 
cerebral  generation.  A  young  Senator  from  Ohio, 
Mr.  Harding,  arrived  in  the  upper  House  early 
enough  to  see  the  portent  of  Mr.  Root  there.  He 
keeps  to  this  day  a  sense  of  its  unbecomingness. 

From  his  desk  on  the  floor  Mr.  Root  talked  to 
the  country,  but  the  Senate  did  not  listen.  One 
does  not  speak  in  the  Senate  by  the  authority  of 
intellect  or  of  personality.  One  speaks  by  the 
authority  of  dead  men's  shoes. 

174 


ELIHU  ROOT 

Not  being  a  big  committee  chairman,  Mr.  Root 
was  not  of  counsel  in  the  big  cases.  He  tried  to 
associate  himself  with  counsel  but  the  traditions 
of  the  Senate  and  the  jealousy  of  Senators  were 
against  him.  He  had  not  the  passion  for  public 
service  that  makes  Reed  Smoot  and  Wesley  Jones 
miraculously  patient  with  the  endless  details  of 
legislation.  After  six  years  he  quit. 

"I  am  tired  of  it, "  he  said  to  Senator  Fall,  " the 
Senate  is  doing  such  little  things  in  such  a  little 
way."  It  was  different  from  public  life  under 
Roosevelt  where  one  did  not  notice  size  of  what 
they  did — one  has  not  yet  noticed  the  size  of 
what  they  did — for  the  grandeur  of  the  way  they 
did  it. 

I  have  said  that  Mr.  Root's  mind  with  its  ad 
vocate's  bent  always  occupied  itself  with  the  justi 
fication  of  other  men's  views,  his  chief's  or  his 
party's.  There  was  one  notable  exception,  his 
break  with  the  Republicans  while  he  was  in  the 
Senate  on  the  question  of  discriminating  in  favor 
of  American  shipping  through  the  Panama  Canal. 
A  clever  lawyer's  argument  can  be  made  that  when 
the  United  States  said  "all  nations"  in  its  treaty 
with  Great  Britain  regarding  the  Canal  it  meant  all 
nations  except  itself.  But  Mr.  Root  declined  to 

i75 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

make  it,  holding  that  plain  morality  and  a  greater 
respect  for  the  obligations  of  a  treaty  than  Beth- 
man  Hollweg  expressed  when  he  called  them  scraps 
of  paper  required  this  country  to  charge  just  the 
same  tolls  for  American  ships  using  the  canal  as 
for  British  ships  or  any  other  ships  using  it. 

The  general  Republican  argument  is  that  thus 
interpreted,  the  Hay-Pauncefote  treaty  is  so  foolish 
and  so  inconvenient  a  treaty  that  Mr.  Hay  must 
not  have  meant  what  he  said  when  he  wrote  it,  and 
really  did  mean  something  that  he  wholly  failed  to 
say.  The  reasons  for  contending  that  Mr.  Hay 
meant  no  tolls  for  the  United  States  and  tolls  for 
England,  when  he  wrote  the  same  tolls  for  every 
body  are  highly  ingenious  and  as  it  was  a  Democratic 
President  who  was  asserting  that  Mr.  Hay  used 
language  in  its  ordinary  sense,  Mr.  Root  as  a  Re 
publican  might  have  been  expected  to  declare  that 
Mr.  Hay  used  it  in  quite  the  reverse  of  its  ordinary 
sense.  But  he  did  not.  He  supported  the  Demo 
cratic  President  and  treated  the  Republican  posi 
tion  as  if  it  had  not  the  slightest  taint  of  legality 
in  it,  to  the  lasting  shock  of  Mr.  Harding,  on  whose 
side  the  precedents  are,  for  nations  do  say  "all 
nations, "  and  are  later  found  to  mean  all  nations 
but  themselves  when  their  virtuous  promises  to 

176 


ELIHU  ROOT 

make  no  exceptions  in  their  own  favor  turn  out  to 
be  inconvenient. 

When  Mr.  Root  took  a  high  moral  stand  on  the 
treaty  it  was  said  among  Republican  Senators  that 
he  was  thinking  more  of  the  transcontinental  rail 
roads  which  were  fighting  competition  by  water" 
than  he  was  of  the  sanctity  of  international  engage 
ments.  The  probability  is  that  he  was  probably 
thinking  more  of  John  Hay  and  Elihu  Root  than 
he  was  of  either.  He  was  in  the  Cabinet  when  John 
Hay  as  Secretary  of  State  made  the  treaty.  Sena 
tor  Lodge,  the  only  other  Senator  to  agree  with  Mr. 
Root  and  disagree  with  his  party  about  the  mean 
ing  of  all  nations,  was  John  Hay's  closest  friend. 
Probably  both  of  them,  intimately  associated  with 
Mr.  Hay,  had  their  part  in  the  making  of  the 
treaty.  They  had  perhaps  the  sensitiveness  of 
authors  about  their  capacity  to  say  exactly  what 
they  meant.  They  wanted  to  recognize  their  own 
international  piece  when  it  was  put  on  the  stage 
by  the  commercially  minded  producers  of  the 
Senate. 

The  history  of  the  Hay-Pauncefote  treaty  is 
interesting  and  unfamiliar.  Attaching  Paunce- 
fote's  name  to  the  treaty  was  a  delicate  act  of  in 
ternational  courtesy  since  there  is  Pauncefote's 

xa  177 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

word  for  it,  privately  spoken,  that  he  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  writing  of  it. 

Hay  draughted  the  treaty  by  himself  probably 
with  the  cognizance  of  Root  and  Lodge,  the  great 
lawyer  who  was  his  associate  in  the  Cabinet  and  his 
closest  personal  friend  in  the  Capitol.  Hay  then 
handed  it  to  Pauncefote,  the  British  minister  here. 
Pauncefote  transmitted  it  to  the  foreign  office  in 
London  which  received  it  with  surprise  and  prob 
ably  with  satisfaction,  for  the  Clayton-Bulwer 
treaty  which  it  in  a  sense  revived,  had  been  for 
gotten  for  nearly  half  a  century.  Delay  is  the  rule 
of  foreign  offices. 

Perhaps  Mr.  Hay's  treaty  was  not  so  generous 
as  it  seemed  on  first  reading,  a  suspicion  which 
^eems  to  have  been  justified  by  the  interpretation 
put  upon  it  by  the  final  authority  upon  inter 
national  engagements,  the  Republican  National 
Convention  at  Chicago.  And  if  it  was  as  generous 
as  it  seemed  let  not  America  think  Great  Britain 
too  eager  in  accepting  it,  let  America  pay  a  little  to 
overcome  the  reluctance  of  Great  Britain  in  setting 
her  approval  upon  the  new  contract. 

At  last,  after  much  apparent  hesitation,  the 
foreign  office  agreed  to  the  new  treaty  in  considera 
tion  of  America's  throwing  in  with  it  an  arbitra- 

178 


ELIHU  ROOT 

tion  of  the  Bering  Sea  dispute.  President  Roose 
velt  interpreted  Mr.  Hay's  arbitration  contract 
much  as  the  Republican  National  Convention 
interpreted  Mr.  Hay's  treaty,  by  appointing  Ameri 
can  arbitrators  who  promised  beforehand,  in  giving 
a  fair  and  impartial  hearing  to  the  Canadian  claims, 
always  to  vote  for  the  American  position  and  to 
resign  and  be  succeeded  by  others  if  they  found 
that  they  could  not  do  so. 

Why,  then,  the  prevailing  distrust  of  Mr.  Root? 

His  public  morals  regarding  the  Hay-Pauncefote 
treaty  were  better  than  those  of  his  party,  even  if 
we  accept  the  view  that  they  were  dictated  by 
nothing  more  than  a  certain  mental  integrity,  a 
certain  consistency  with  himself.  He  was  as  vir 
tuous  in  the  taking  of  the  Panama  Canal  as  the 
virtuous  Mr.  Roosevelt.  He  had  the  advocate's 
honesty  of  being  true  to  his  client,  whether  his 
client  was  the  public  or  the  great  corporations. 
Mentality  was  uppermost  in  him,  so  that  he  took 
primarily  a  logical  rather  than  a  moral  view  of  all 
questions;  but  also  so  much  that  he  could  not  pre 
tend,  could  not  act,  and  thus  he  was  more  honest 
than  the  politicians. 

His  statesmanship  was  discontinuous,  being  an 
interesting  avocation  rather  than  a  career.  Of  it 

i79 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

little  has  been  permanent.  His  General  Staff  soon 
lapsed  into  incompetence;  if  it  had  not,  it  might 
have  been  the  danger  to  American  national  life 
that  the  German  General  Staff  was  to  German 
national  life.  Recently  it  was  merged  with  the 
high  command.  As  Secretary  of  State  he  was  not 
creative,  Mr.  Harding  turning  back  to  the  solid 
ground  of  American  international  policy,  rested 
upon  John  Hay's  open  door  and  Knox's  dollar 
diplomacy.  Root  in  foreign  relations  merely 
succeeded  with  the  Senate  where  Hay  had  failed. 
Always  the  advocate,  he  takes  other  men's  ideas, 
Hay's  or  Wilson's  and  justifies  them  or  makes  them 
practical.  His  New  York  constitution  failed,  being 
unjustly  suspected.  His  world  court  has  little 
better  hope  of  acceptance,  for  Mr.  Hughes  is  not  a 
voluntary  sharer  of  glory. 

In  spite  of  it  all,  some  greatness  remains,  the 
impression  of  a  powerful  though  limited  intelli 
gence.  His  career  was  to  give  us  a  moral.  It  is: 
if  you  have  an  adroit  and  energetic  mind  you  will 
find  public  affairs  uninteresting;  except  in  their 
occasional  phases.  If  you  have  such  a  mind  and 
must  enter  politics,  hide  it;  otherwise  democracy 
will  distrust  you.  Whatever  you  do,  be  dull. 


i  So 


HIRAM   WARREN   JOHNSON 


HIRAM  JOHNSON 

HIRAM  JOHNSON  would  have  enjoyed  the  French 
Revolution,  if  accident  had  made  him  radical  at 
that  time.  He  would  have  been  stirred  by  the 
rising  of  the  people;  he  would  have  given  tongue 
to  their  grievances  in  a  voice  keyed  to  lash  them  to 
greater  Jfary.  He  would  have  been  excited  by  it 
as  he  never  has  been  by  the  little  risings  of  the 
masses  which  he  has  made  vocal.  In  all  the  noisy 
early_£hases  of  i^  he ^  would  have  made  the  loudest 
iigise.  And  he  would  have  gone  to  the  block  when 
the  real  business  of  the  revolution  began  with  the 
fanatics  at  its  helm. 

In  the  Russian  Revolution,  he^vould  have  been 
a  Kerensky ;  and  he  would  have,  fled  when  the  true 
believers  in  change  arrived.  Hejsjthe^orator^of 
6meutes,  who  is  fascinated  by  a  multitude  in  a 
passion. 

Johnson  is  not  a  revolutionary.  Not  in  the  least, 
not  any  more  than  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  is.  But 

183 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

revolution  has  a  fierce  attraction  for  him.    He  once 

campaign, 


of  Mr.  Harding's  prospective  election,  "The  war 
has  set  back  the  people  for  a  generation.  They 
have  bowed  to  a  hundred  repressed  acts.  They 
have  become  slaves  to  the  government.  They  are 
frightened  at  the  excesses  in  Russia.  They  are 
docile;  and  they  will  not  recover  from  being  so  for 
many  years.  The  interests  which  control  the 
Republican  party  will  make  the  most  of  their 
docility.  In  the  end,  of  course,  there  will  be  a 
revolution,  but  it  will  not  come  in  my  time." 

That  "it  will  not  come  in  my  time  "  was  said  in  a 
tone  of  regret.  It  was  not  so  much  that  the  Sena 
tor  wanted  revolution.  I  do  not  believe  he  did. 
But  he  wanted  his  chance,  that  outburst  of  popular 
resentment  which  would  bring  him  to  the  front, 
with  the  excitement,  the  sense  of  power  that  would 
come  from  the  response  of  the  nation  when  his 
angry  voice  translated  into  words  its  elemental 
passion. 

Turbulent  popular  feeling  is  breath  in  Johnson's 
nostrils.  Twice  he  has  thoroughly  enjoyed  its 
intoxication. 

His  political  life  was  blank  paper  when  the  tu 
mult  of  popular  indignation  swept  California  at 

184 


HIRAM  JOHNSON 

the  time  Francis  J.  Heney,  who  was  prosecuting 
the  San  Francisco  grafters,  was_shpt  in_  the  court 
room.  He  had  thought  nothing  politically,  he  had 
felt  nothing  politically.  HeTiaxI  neither  convic 
tions,  nor  passions,  nor  morals,  politically  speaking. 
He  grew  up  in  soil  which  does  not  produce  lofty 
standar3s^  Sbmethmg~6f  the  mining-camp  spirit 
still  hung  over  California,  which  had  been  settled 
by  adventurers^Jorty-niners,  gold  seekers,  men  who 
had  left  the  East  to  "make  a  new  start"  where 
there  was_pay  dirt.  The  State  had  a  wild  zest  for 
life  which  was  untrammeled  by  Puritanism.  San 
Francisco  had  its  Barbary  Coast  and  in  every 
restaurant  its_private  dining  rooms  for  women. 
Johnson  himself  was  sprung  from  a  father  who  was 
a  "railroad  lawyer, "  the  agent  of  privileges  in  prp- 
ctirkig^pecr^^^ors.  by  methods  once  well  known, 
from  the  state  legislature.  The  atmosphere  of  his 
youth  was  not^me  tc^  develop  a  sensitive  conscience 
or  a  high  conception  of  public  morals. 

Johnson  at  this  Jime  was  a  ^practicing  attorney, 
not  noted  for  the  quality  of  his  community  service. 
The  administration  of  San  Francisco  had  been  a 
scandal  for  years.  Few  cared.  It  was  aj' corrupt 
and  contented"  city.  The  corruption  grew  worse. 
Lower  and  meaner  grafters  rose,  to  takejthe  place 

185 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

of  the _ earlier  and _more_robust  good  fellows  who 
trafficj^ecLm.  the  city^o^  shame.  Graft  lost  class,  and 
lost  caste.  It  was  ultimately^exposed  in  all  its 
shocking  indecency.  The  light  andjicentious  town* 
developed  a  conscience.  Public  indignation  arose 
and  reached  its  height,  when  the  grafters  ventured 
too  far  in  the  shooting  of  the  attorney  charged 
with  their  prosecution. 

Johnson  then  felt  for  the  first  time  something  he 
had  never  felt  before — the  stirring  of  the  storm  of 
angry  jDOjnilar  feeling.  It  woke  something  in  him, 
something  that  he  did  not  know  existed  before — 
his  instinct  for  the  expression  of  public  passion; 
his  love  of  the  platform  with  yelling  multitudes  in 
front  of  him. 

He  threw  himself  into  the  fray  on  the  side  of 
civic  virtue.  The  disturbance  to  the  complacency 
of  San  Francisco  disturbed  the  complacency  of  the 
State,  which  had  calmly  endured  misgovernment 
for  many  years.  Misgovernment  procured  by  the 
railroad,  the  public  utility  corporations,  the  other 
combinations  of  wealth,  through  their  agents, 
and  through  the  corrupt  politicians.  Johnson 
became  the  spokesman  of  public  protest  and  the 
reform  governor  of  the  State. 

After  that  came  battling  for  the  Lord  at  Ar- 

186 


HIRAM  JOHNSON 

mageddon — the  most  intoxicating  experience  in 
American  political  history,  for  a  man  of  Johnson's 
temperament.  It  was  a  revolution,  not  in  a  govern 
ment,  but  in  a  party.  Bonds  were  loosed.  Im 
mense  personal  enlargement  came  to  those  who  had 
known  the  ties  of  regularity.  It  was  an  hour  of 
freedom,  unbridled  political  passion,  unrestrained 
political  utterance.  Docility  did  not  exist.  Vast 
crowds  thrilled  with  new  hopes  yelled  themselves 
hoarse  over  angry  words. 

Association  with  Roosevelt  on  the  Progressive 
ticket  lifted  Johnson  from  a  local  to  a  national 
importance.  The  whole  country  was  the  audience 
which  leaped  at  his  words.  It  was  a  revolution  in 
tittle,  a  taste,  a  sample  of  what  the  real  thing  would 
be,  with  its  breaking  of  restraints,  its  making  of  the 
mob  a  perfect  instrument  to  play  upon,  its  unleash 
ing  of  passion  to  which  to  give  tongue.  Johnson 
has  felt  its  wild  stimulation  and  like  a  man  who  has 
used  drugs  the  habit  is  upon  him. 

Moreover,  his  one  chance  lies  that  way.  I  have 
said  that  he  is,  by  accident,  radical.  Let  us  im 
agine  a  great  outburst  of  popular  passion  for  re 
action.  And  suppose  that  Johnson  was,  when  it 
arrived,  a  political  blank,  as  he  was  when  Heney 
was  shot.  Johnson  would  have  raised  his  angry 

187 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

voice  against  radicalism,  just  as  readily  as 
for  it. 

The  essential  thing  with  him  is  popular  passion, 
not  a  political  philosophy.  He  has  no  political 
philosophy.  He  has  no  real  convictions.  He  does 
not  reason  or  think  deeply.  His  mentality  is  slight. 
He  is  the  voice  of  many;  instinctively  he  gives 
tongue  to  what  the  many  feel ;  that  is  all. 

Suppose  the  strong-lunged  Californian  were  a 
political  blank,  just  reaching  the  national  con 
sciousness,  when  the  reaction  against  Wilson  began 
and  when  the  public  swung  to  conservatism. 

You  know  those  vast  tin  amplifiers  employed 
in  big  convention  halls,  or  in  out-door  meetings,  to 
carry  the  voice  of  the  speaker  to  the  remotest 
depths  of  the  audience;  Johnson  is  a  vast  tin  am 
plifier  of  the  voice  of  the  mass.  When  the  people 
had  become  " docile'*  he  would  have  thundered 
"docility"  to  the  uttermost  bounds  of  the  uni 
verse,  if  he  had  not  by  earlier  utterances  been 
definitely  placed  on  the  side  opposed  to  docility. 

But  he  had  been  definitely  placed  in  the  battle  of 
Armageddon.  A  thousand  ennuies  located  him 
for  all  political  time.  No  convictions  hold  him 
where  he  is  in  case  there  be  profit  in  changing  sides; 
other  men  habitually  conservative  would  have  the 

188 


HIRAM  JOHNSON 

preference  over  him  on  the  other  side.  In  this  sense 
he  is  accidently  radical,  accidently  because  he 
happened  to  emerge  in  politics  at  a  radical  moment. 
That  takes  into  account  only  the  mental  back 
ground  of  his  political  position.  There  is  an  element 
that  was  not  chance.  Public  passion  is  almost 
invariably  radical,  springing  as  it  does  from  the 
resentment  of  inequality,  and  Johnson  is  the  tongue 
of  public  passion. 

Is  he  dangerous?  He  is,  only  if  public  passion 
becomes  dangerous  and  only  up  to  the  point  where 
the  speakers  of  revolution  pass  from  the  stage  and 
the  doers  of  it  rig  up  their  chopping  blocks.  At 
present  he  furnishes  the  words,  the  ugly  words, 
which  men  throw  instead  of  stones  at  the  objects 
of  their  hate.  He  is  the  safety  valve  of  gathering 
passion.  Men  listen  to  him  and  feel  that  they  have 
done  something  to  vindicate  their  rights.  They 
applaud  him  to  shake  the  roof,  and  vote  for  Mr. 
Harding. 

It  is  customary  to  speak  of  his  magnetism  over 
crowds.  He  has  no  magnetism  in  personal  contact. 
He  walks  toward  you  as  if  he  were  about  to  deliver 
a  blow,  an  impression  that  is  strengthened  by  his 
square  menacing  figure.  His  voice  is  unpleasant. 
His  smile  is  wry.  He  not  unusually  has  a  com- 

189 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

plaint  to  make  against  the  public,  against  the  press, 
against  fate,  against  you  personally/  He  is  not 
interested  in  people,  as  Roosevelt  was  to  so  an 
amazing  degree,  and  as  magnetic  persons  usually 
are.  He  is  cold,  hard,  and  selfish.  His  quarrels  are 
numerous,  with  the  campaign  managers  of  the 
Armageddon  fight,  with  his  own  campaign  manager 
of  1920,  with  the  newspaper  correspondents.  He  is 
habitually  pessimistic,  and  pessimism  and  mag 
netism  do  not  go  together. 

His  complaint  that  the  people  were  docile  and 
would  not  recover  their  confidence  and  self-asser 
tion  in  his  time,  was  a  bit  of  his  inevitable  gloom. 
His  dark  habit  of  thought  hung  over  his  campaign 
for  the  presidential  nomination  of  1920,  preventing 
his  making  a  real  effort  in  many  states,  and  lay  in 
the  way  of  his  success.  He  has  few  friends,  love 
having  been  left  out  of  his  make-up.  I  do  not 
speak  of  family  affection — but  love  in  its  larger 
implications.  Those  who  surround  him — clerks 
and  secretaries — have  the  air  of  repressed,  starving 
personalities. 

That  which  gathers  the  crowds  and  sets  them 
shouting  is  not  his  magnetism  but  the  perfect 
expression  of  their  passion.  For  them  and  for  it  he 
is  a  sounding  board.  His  voice  with  its  hard  angry 

190 


HIRAM  JOHNSON 

tone,  its  mechanical  rise  and  fall,  has  the  ring  of  a 
hundred  guillotines  in  operation.  Having  little 
culture,  unintellectual,  he  is  primitive  as  the  mass 
before  him.  He  talks  their  language  and  an  in 
stinct  all  his  own  gives  him  an  exact  sense  of  their 
emotions. 

And  what  he  says  leaves  the  impression  of  tre 
mendous  sincerity.  His  sincerity  does  not  arise 
from  reasoned  convictions  but  from  hatred;  deep 
and  abiding  hatred. 

Senator  Borah  once  said,  "The  difference  be 
tween  Johnson  and  me  is  that  I  regard  questions 
from  the  point  of  view  of  principles  while  he  re 
gards  them  from  the  point  of  view  of  personalities. 
When  a  man  opposes  me  I  do  not  become  angry  at 
him.  On  the  next  issue  he  may  agree  with  me. 
When  a  man  opposes  Johnson  he  hates  him.  He 
feels  that  the  opposition  is  directed  personally 
against  him,  not  against  the  policy  that  separates 
them." 

Johnson's  opponents  are  the  elements  of  reaction, 
the  malefactors  of  great  wealth,  the  supporters  of 
that  social  inequality  which  the  crowd  resents .  They 
stood  in  his  path  in  California.  They  made  impos 
sible  his  nomination  at  Chicago.  When  the  bitter 
enders,  during  the  treaty  fight,  planned  to  send  him 

191 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

on  a  tour  of  the  country,  these  monied  men 
closed  their  pocketbooks,  exclaiming  to  Senator 
Knox,  "What  do  you  mean  to  do?  Advertise  this 
man  Johnson  and  make  him  the  Republican  candi 
date  for  President?  Not  with  our  money." 

Only  the  raising  of  a  fund  by  Senator  McCormick 
and  some  of  the  old  Progressives,  gave  him  his 
chance  to  speak.  He  hates  them  and  when  he 
attacks  them  it  is  with  all  the  force  and  sincerity 
of  his  soul.  It  is  no  mere  question  of  hatred,  such  as 
Roosevelt  would  employ  to  dramatize  and  make 
personal  the  issues  he  was  representing  to  the 
people;  it  is  bitter,  revengeful  detestation.  It 
makes  Johnson  the  most  sincere  man  before  the 
country  to-day.  And  that  pessimistic  strain  in  his 
nature  causes  the  darkness  of  his  diatribe  to  seem 
all  the  more  true. 

But  he  swallows  for  expediency  as  other  men 
swallow  their  convictions  for  it,  and  wrath  is  the 
bitterer  dose.  During  the  1920  campaign  he 
trafficked  with  Senator  Penrose,  the  representative 
of  hated  wealth,  for  support  at  Chicago,  offering, 
it  has  not  been  disclosed  what  considerations,  for 
his  aid. 

He  was  ready  at  that  time  to  take  back  his 
speech  advocating  the  government  ownership  of 

192 


HIRAM  JOHNSON 

railroads,  a  gesture  against  "the  interests/ '  made 
at  the  bidding  of  Hearst,  at  the  beck  of  whose 
agents  he  is  prone  to  bestir  himself. 

It  must  be  an  irksome  livery,  that  of  Hearst,  for 
he  hates  all  service  and  overshadowing.  Equally 
irksome  is  his  service  to  regularity  under  the  rod 
of  the  Republican  party.  But  he  bows  to  it,  and 
supports  Harding  whom  he  hates.  He  bobs  up  like 
a  Jack-in-the-box  and  makes  his  laudatory  speech 
whenever  the  name  of  Roosevelt  comes  up,  though 
in  his  heart  he  must  reverence  none  too  deeply  that 
overshadowing  personality. 

He  has  no  roots  except  in  the  mob  and  no  hope 
except  in  its  aroused  resentment  against  inequality. 
Not  being  interested  in  individuals  he  has  not  that 
personal  organization  possessed  by  Roosevelt,  with 
his  army  of  correspondents,  friends  and  idolaters, 
in  every  hamlet. 

And  of  course  he  has  little  hope  of  ever  con 
trolling  his  party  organization.  He  is  curiously 

alone. 

— ) 
"There  are  only  three  men  in  the  world  whom  I 

trust, "  he  once  said  to  a  friend.  There  is  no  reason 
to  regard  this  as  an  exaggeration.  His  attitude 
toward  his  associates  in  the  Senate  is  this:  "If  I 
were  crossing  a  desert  with  any  one  of  them  and 

13  55* 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

there  was  only  one  water  bottle,  I  should  insist 
upon  carrying  that  bottle. " 

On  such  pessimism  and  distrust  it  is  impossible 
to  build  political  success.  It  can  come  only  when 
his  pessimism  and  distrust  coincide  with  like 
pessimism  and  distrust  in  the  masses.  He  waits  the 
day,  but  gloomily,  without  confidence. 


194 


©  Harris  and  Ewing 


PHILANDER   CHASE   KNOX 


PHILANDER  CHASE  KNOX 

"I  LIKE  Knox  and  I  admire  him  tremendously, 
but  I  will  not  ask  him  to  be  my  Secretary  of  State. 
He  is  too  indifferent." 

This  characterization  of  the  junior  Senator  from 
Pennsylvania,  attributed  to  his  late  colleague 
President  Harding,  summarizes  very  aptly  his 
strength  and  his  weakness.  One  can  very  easily 
admire  him  and,  when  he  drops  the  mask  of  dig 
nity,  which  seems  almost  pompous  in  so  diminutive 
a  figure,  one  cannot  help  liking  him.  But  in  spite 
of  his  successes, — which  his  enemies  attribute  to 
luck,  and  he  probably  attributes  to  intellectual 
superiority, — he  has  never  quite  achieved  greatness 
and  will  probably  go  down  in  history  as  one  of  the 
lesser  luminaries  in  the  political  heavens. 

Knox  is  indifferent,  especially  to  those  who  do 
not  know  him  intimately.  It  is  not  because  he  has 
been  without  ambition.  On  the  contrary  he  has 
longed  to  soar  like  the  eagle  but  he  has  the  wings 

197 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

of  the  sparrow  and  whatever  exertion  he  has  made 
has  ended  in  a  feeble  and  futile  fluttering. 

I  doubt  if  any  man  in  public  life  has  had  so  many 
honors  thrust  upon  him.  He  has  held  three  great 
offices  of  the  Republic  without  so  much  as  raising  a 
hand  for  any  of  them.  Unlike  most  men  he  did 
not  travel  the  mucky  road  of  politics  to  reach  Wash 
ington  nor  compromise  with  circumstance  to  gain 
distinction.  Three  Presidents  invited  him  to  sit  at 
their  cabinet  tables.  Three  times  the  Republican 
machine  in  Pennsylvania  invited  him  to  sit  in  the 
Senate.  With  graceful  dignity  he  accepted  all  of 
these  invitations  not,  indeed,  unconscious  of  the 
fact  that  the  selection  in  each  case  was  a  very  happy 
one. 

I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  he  is  conceited.  He  is 
merely  conscious  of  the  fact  that  intellectually  he  is 
somewhat  superior  to  his  colleagues,  most  of  whom, 
strangely  enough,  quite  agree  with  him.  They 
consult  him  and  accept  his  counsel  with  almost 
childlike  faith.  To  the  mediocre  politicians  and 
provincial  lawyers  who  constitute  the  bulk  of  the 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  he  is  a  figure 
apart,  who  looks  upon  their  antics  with  a  kindly, 
but  never  amused,  tolerance. 

"I  know  nothing  of  politics/'  he  said  to  me  a 

198 


PHILANDER  CHASE  KNOX 

short  time  ago.  "I  have  never  been  interested  in 
politics  as  such." 

This  remark  is  rather  enigmatical  to  the  average 
member,  who  would,  ordinarily,  look  upon  the 
author  as  a  dolt  or  pretender.  They  do  not  dare 
to  do  either  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Knox;  therefore,  the 
conclusion  that  he  is  indifferent.  Never  have  the 
men  associated  with  Mr.  Knox  questioned  his 
capacity. 

Robert  Lansing,  when  he  was  Secretary  of  State, 
said  of  him;  " Senator  Lodge  will  not  understand 
the  treaty  but  he  will  fight  for  it  for  political  rea 
sons.  Senator  Knox  will  understand  it  thoroughly." 

The  observation  seems  almost  prophetic  in  the 
light  of  what  has  since  been  disclosed.  Mr.  Lans 
ing's  faith  in  Mr.  Knox's  judgment  seems  to  have 
been  fully  justified.  I  know  of  no  one  who  has  held 
more  steadfastly  the  respect  of  colleagues  in  the 
Senate  or  at  the  Cabinet  table,  nor  who  has  been 
more  easily  successful  up  to  a  certain  point  or  so 
singularly  unsuccessful  beyond  it.  He  has  done 
valiant  service  for  his  country  but  he  has  failed 
lamentably  to  reach  the  heights  from  which  he 
could  look  upon  broader  horizons. 

In  the  early  days  of  his  career  no  one  strove  more 
whole  heartedly.  Destiny  smiled  upon  him  and  the 

199 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

White  House  seemed  to  beckon.  He  was  not  un 
aware  of  the  opportunity  nor  was  there  anyone 
more  eager  to  grasp  it.  But  he  discovered  that  he 
could  not  stir  the  enthusiasm  that  begets  political 
power.  The  secret,  which  enabled  many  other 
men,  many  of  whom  he  despised,  to  succeed,  was 
not  his. 

A  temperamental  dislike  of  the  methods  of  poli 
ticians  was  followed  by  a  strong  animosity  towards 
those  who  crossed  his  political  path  and  some  of 
those  who  went  along  beside  it.  He  became  hyper 
critical  of  those  with  whom  he  associated  and 
allowed  a  natural  germ  of  cynicism  to  develop  and 
flourish  within  him.  Little  by  little  he  has  with 
drawn  from  the  active  combat,  a  philosopher  in 
politics  enamored  of  public  life  but  unwilling  to 
suffer  the  inconveniences  it  involves. 

It  is  no  wonder  then  that  his  colleagues  in  the 
Senate,  especially  the  younger  members,  are  some 
what  in  fear  of  the  incisive  tongue,  for  he  wields  it 
frequently  and  contemptuously.  When  after  his 
election,  Mr.  Harding  went  South  with  Senator 
Frelinghuysen,  Senator  Davis  Elkins,  and  Senator 
Hale,  the  older  Senators,  not,  perhaps,  without  a 
tinge  of  disappointment  at  having  been  left  out, 
marveled  at  the  entourage  the  President  had 

200 


PHILANDER  CHASE  KNOX 

selected  for  himself,  but  Knox  was  cynically  un 
disturbed. 

"It  is  quite  simple,"  he  said,  "I  see  nothing 
mysterious  about  it  at  all.  The  President  wants 
relaxation— complete  mental  relaxation." 

No  less  biting  was  his  comment  on  Robert  Lans 
ing  when  that  gentleman  started  on  the  high  road 
of  public  service  as  Counselor  of  the  State  Depart 
ment.  The  bandy-legged  messenger  who  guards 
the  door  of  the  Secretary  of  State  is  the  negro, 
Eddie  Savoy.  Eddie,  in  his  way,  is  a  personage. 
For  forty  years  he  has  ushered  diplomatists  in  and 
out  of  the  Secretary's  office;  his  short  bent  figure 
gives  the  only  air  of  permanence  to  an  institution 
which  seems  to  be  in  a  constant  state  of  flux.  When 
the  Lansing  appointment  was  announced  Mr.  Knox 
observed:  "I  would  as  soon  ask  Eddie  Savoy  an 
opinion  on  foreign  affairs  as  Robert  Lansing." 

The  roots  of  Mr.  Knox's  superciliousness  dip 
down  deep  into  the  relationships  begun  a  score  of 
years  ago.  To  understand  him  as  he  is  it  is  neces 
sary  to  understand  him  as  he  was  when  his  career 
was  before  him.  William  McKinley  asked  him  to 
become  Attorney  General  in  his  Cabinet.  He  was 
then  forty-two  years  old,  a  political  nobody.  What 
reputation  he  had  was  confined  to  Pittsburg  and  a 

201 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

selected  few  of  the  steel  millionaires  in  Wall  Street, 
but  among  the  selected  few  were  names  to  be  con 
jured  with,  such  as  Andrew  Carnegie  and  Henry 
C.  Frick.  Whether  President  McKinley's  interest 
in  Knox  was  spontaneous  or  prompted  by  Mr. 
Frick  I  do  not  know.  Mr.  Knox  likes  to  believe 
that  Mr.  Frick  did  not  enter  into  the  equation. 
Mr.  Knox  declined,  saying  that  he  could  not  sacri 
fice  his  lucrative  practice  but  that  in  four  years  he 
would  accept  the  invitation  if  the  President  cared 
to  renew  it. 

It  was  renewed.  At  the  age  of  forty-six,  Mr. 
Knox  quit  the  bar  for  politics,  or,  as  he  would  say, 
statecraft.  His  appointment  evoked  a  storm  of 
protest  from  such  immaculate  journals  as  the  New 
York  World.  They  dubbed  him,  "Prick's  man," 
and  predicted  that  the  Department  of  Justice 
would  be  turned  into  a  Wall  Street  anteroom  for 
the  convenience  of  the  capitalistic  combinations 
then  flouting  the  Sherman  anti-trust  law.  The 
charges,  of  course,  were  as  wide  of  the  mark  as 
most  of  the  ebullitions  of  the  yellow  journals. 

Mr.  Knox  began  his  public  career  by  attacking 
the  Northern  Securities  merger,  against  the  judg 
ment  of  some  of  the  highest-paid  lawyers  of  the 
country.  The  Supreme  Court  sustained  him.  It 

202 


PHILANDER  CHASE  KNOX 

was  the  greatest  victory  the  government  ever  won 
tinder  the  Sherman  law.  Thereafter  Mr.  Knox, 
who  had  been  labeled  a  corporation  lawyer,  was 
proclaimed  a  trust  buster.  By  the  time  he  was 
fifty  he  had  become  the  greatest  Attorney  General 
in  a  half  century.  Certainly  the  mark  he  set  has 
never  been  reached  by  any  of  his  successors. 

When  Mr.  Roosevelt  came  into  the  White  House 
Mr.  Knox  was  at  the  pinnacle  of  his  career  and  was 
as  much  admired  by  his  new  chief  as  by  his 
martyred  predecessor.  In  ability  Mr.  Roosevelt 
considered  him  next  to  Elihu  Root, — for  which  Mr. 
Root  was  never  quite  forgiven.  It  is  generally 
known  that  President  Roosevelt  believed  that  Mr. 
Root  was  the  best  qualified  man  in  the  country  to 
succeed  him,  but  at  the  same  time,  being  an  astute 
politician,  he  knew  that  he  could  not  be  elected. 
His  attitude  to  his  Secretary  of  State  was  the  same 
as  Senator  Lodge's  toward  himself,  when  he  said 
in  1920:  "I  know  that  I  would  make  an  excellent 
President,  but  I  realize  that  I  would  make  a  poor 
candidate.1' 

Root  being  out  of  it  because  of  this  obvious 
defect,  President  Roosevelt  proceeded  to  groom 
Mr.  Knox  for  the  nomination.  Mr.  Knox  at  the 
President's  suggestion,  prepared  and  delivered 

203 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

several  speeches  in  the  hope  that  he  would  awaken 
popular  enthusiasm.  The  attempt  failed  dismally. 

There  was  not  a  responsive  throb,  not  even  a 
vague  echo.  Mr.  Knox  knew  that  he  possessed  not 
the  merest  shred  of  the  leadership  necessary  to  a 
presidential  candidate. 

He  went  back  to  the  Senate,  where  he  had  suc 
ceeded  Matthew  Quay  upon  his  resignation  from 
the  Cabinet,  sadder  if  wiser,  while  William  H.  Taft 
draped  upon  his  broad  shoulders  the  mantle  of 
Roosevelt. 

Mr.  Knox  has  never  quite  recovered  from  that 
disappointment,  but  he  did  not  altogether  abandon 
hope.  He  accepted  a  place  in  the  Taft  Cabinet  as 
Secretary  of  State,  more  for  the  opportunities  it 
offered  than  for  the  pleasure  of  the  associations,  for 
Mr.  Knox's  attitude  toward  President  Taft  was 
never  more  than  passive  tolerance  tinged  with 
contempt.  This  new  venture  was  no  more  success 
ful  than  the  old.  He  made  it  quite  evident  that  a 
new  regime  was  to  be  established  in  the  State 
Department.  The  policies  originated  by  John  Hay 
and  developed  with  singular  brilliancy  by  Mr.  Root 
were  shunted  into  the  background  and  a  new  era 
was  proclaimed.  It  is  unnecessary  to  comment  on 
the  dismal  essay  at  " dollar  diplomacy"  and  the 

204 


PHILANDER  CHASE  KNOX 

Mexican  policy  of  that  period.  The  simple  fact 
is  that  Mr.  Knox's  name  is  not  associated  with  a 
single  successful  foreign  policy.  Some  might  have 
succeeded  but  unfortunately  the  energy  displayed 
at  the  outset  of  his  career  in  this  new  field  was  soon 
dissipated.  Mr.  Knox  disliked  the  methods  of 
diplomacy.  He  lacked  both  the  patience  and  the 
finesse.  He  went  to  the  Department,  over  which 
he  was  supposed  to  preside,  but  rarely.  For  weeks 
at  a  time  Washington  saw  nothing  of  him.  The 
administration  of  the  Department  was  left  largely 
to  Huntington  Wilson,  whose  ineptitude  was 
colossal. 

Fortunately  for  Mr.  Knox  the  extent  of  his 
failure  was  somewhat  screened  from  public  view 
by  the  dust  and  clatter  of  the  collapse  of  the  Taft 
Administration,  but  it  left  its  mark  on  him.  He 
had  failed  dismally  to  eclipse  his  predecessor,  Elihu 
Root.  He  had  eliminated  himself  from  all  con 
sideration  as  one  of  the  very  great  statesmen  of  his 
period.  He  was  a  bitterly  disappointed  man.  Not 
only  his  associates  but  the  members  of  the  diplo 
matic  corps  were  made  to  feel  the  sting  of  his  re 
sentment  against  overwhelming  circumstances. 
Such  references  as  that  directed  at  the  French 
Ambassador,  M.  Jules  Jusserand,  now  dean  of  the 

205 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

diplomatic  corps,  whom  he  called  "the  magpie," 
cost  him  many  friends. 

Upon  the  inauguration  of  President  Wilson  Mr. 
Knox  slipped  quietly  away  to  Valley  Forge.  Public 
life,  however,  still  had  for  him  its  attractions,  and 
when  Senator  Oliver  retired,  he  returned  to  the 
Senate.  During  the  war  his  great  talents  were 
dormant.  He  merely  came  and  went,  a  curious 
little  detached  figure  apparently  quite  unresponsive 
to  the  emotions  which  swept  the  country  during 
that  eventful  period. 

With  the  signing  of  the  armistice  he  aroused 
himself  from  his  apparent  torpor.  Although  he  was 
quite  without  feeling  during  the  stress  and  storm, 
the  situation  created  by  the  presentation  of  the 
Treaty  of  Versailles  with  its  interwoven  League  of 
Nations  stirred  his  intellectual  interest.  He  be 
came  the  leader  of  the  little  band  of  "irreconcil- 
ables  "  who  girded  their  armor  to  prevent  what  they 
regarded  as  a  catastrophic  sacrifice  of  American 
interests.  At  the  same  time  Mr.  Knox  narrowly 
missed  another  opportunity  to  lift  himself  con* 
spicuously  above  the  heads  of  stump  speakers  who, 
for  the  most  part,  to-day  comprise  the  Senate. 

During  that  memorable  fight  Senator  Lodge 
incurred  the  enmity  at  one  time  or  another  of  every 

206 


PHILANDER  CHASE  KNOX 

faction  in  the  Senate.  He  could  not  be  trusted  to 
maintain  the  same  position  over  night,  shifting  as 
expediency  demanded  until  most  of  his  colleagues, 
particularly  the  irreconcilables,  were  exasperated 
beyond  endurance.  At  one  of  the  most  critical 
periods  Senator  Borah  appealed  to  Senator  Knox 
to  wrest  the  leadership  from  the  Massachusetts 
Senator,  with  intimations  that  he  would  have  the 
support  of  the  "bitter  enders"  at  the  forthcoming 
convention  at  Chicago.  Mr.  Knox  does  not  love 
Mr.  Lodge  but  he  refused  to  consider  the  proposal. 
He  was  indifferent.  His  last  great  political  oppor 
tunity  went  glimmering. 

As  I  have  said  Mr.  Knox  can  be  very  charming 
but  I  doubt  that  he  sincerely  admires  any  of  the 
public  men  with  whom  he  has  been  associated,  or 
can  call  any  of  them,  from  the  purely  personal  view 
point,  his  friends,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
Andrew  Mellon,  whom  he  caused  to  be  appointed 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Of  course,  he  likes 
many  of  his  colleagues,  after  a  fashion,  especially 
those  who  admire  him,  but  that  is  another  matter. 
The  intimacy  usually  implied  in  the  term  friend 
ship  does  not  enter  into  such  relations. 

For  some  of  the  more  important  men  he  has 
known,  he  has  shown  a  very  distinct  dislike.  It  is 

207 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

said  of  him  that  he  thought  President  Harding 
overlooked  a  real  opportunity  when  he  failed  to 
invite  him  to  become  Secretary  of  State,  but  his 
disappointment  was  somewhat  mollified  by  the 
fact  that  Mr.  Root  was  not  asked  to  take  the  post. 

Mr.  Knox  prefers  to  look  upon  Mr.  Root  as  a 
lucky  lawyer  who  has  taken  to  himself  much  of  the 
credit  of  John  Hay's  great  work.  He  shows  an 
even  less  regard  for  Mr.  Lodge's  talents.  And  he  is 
doubtful  of  Mr.  Hughes. 

His  attitude  towards  the  Secretary  of  State  dates 
back  to  the  insurance  scandals.  At  that  time  Mr. 
Frick  asked  Mr.  Knox  to  make  an  investigation 
and  suggest  a  course  of  action  to  avert  a  national 
disaster.  This  Mr.  Knox  did  in  his  thorough  and 
painstaking  way.  A  little  later,  when  Mr.  Hughes 
was  appointed  to  make  a  public  inquiry,  the  Knox 
report  was  laid  before  him,  and  according  to  the 
author  of  it,  he  followed  precisely  the  lines  therein 
indicated  creating  for  himself  a  national  reputation 
and  laying  the  foundation  of  a  public  career. 
Credit  was  not  given  Mr.  Knox.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  the  incident  might  have  been  an 
illustration  of  two  great  minds  seeking  the  same 
channel.  Mr.  Knox  does  not  think  so. 

In  spite  of  his  disappointments  and  failures,  the 

208 


PHILANDER  CHASE  KNOX 

dignified  little  Senator  from  Pennsylvania  who  has 
been  so  many  times  on  the  verge  of  greatness, 
seems  to  think  that  he  could  have  done  just  a  little 
better  than  any  of  those  who  have  achieved  it,  had 
circumstance  given  him  the  opportunity.  Perhaps 
he  might.  It  is  a  compliment  that  few  men  merit 
to  be  called  merely  indifferent. 


209 


©  Harris  and  Ewing 


ROBERT   LANSING 


ROBERT  LANSING 

HE  who  believes  in  luck  should  study  the  career 
of  Robert  Lansing.  Mr.  Lansing  probably  thinks 
that  the  goddess  of  chance  played  him  a  scurvy 
trick,  after  having  admitted  him  to  the  Olympian 
heights,  to  break  him  as  suddenly  as  she  made  him. 

Robert  Lansing's  real  misfortune  was  not  know 
ing  how  to  play  his  luck.  It  is  curious  the  fear 
men  have  of  death.  The  former  Secretary  of 
State's  only  hope  of  immortality  was  to  commit 
political  suicide,  and  he  lacked  the  courage  or  the 
vision  to  fall  upon  his  sword. 

When  Woodrow  Wilson  was  elected  President 
for  the  first  time  he  appointed  Mr.  Bryan  Secretary 
of  State.  The  opinion  Mr.  Wilson  entertained  of 
Mr.  Bryan  we  all  know.  Mr.  Wilson  was  not 
given  to  letting  his  thoughts  run  wild,  but  on  one 
occasion,  with  pen  in  hand,  he  permitted  himself 
the  luxury  of  saying  what  he  thought  and  expressed 
the  pious  hope  that  somebody  would  knock  the 

213 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

distinguished  Nebraskan  into  a  cocked  hat  and 
thus  dispose  of  the  perpetual  candidate  who  was 
the  Old  Man  of  the  Sea  to  the  Democratic  Party. 

Circumstances  alter  cases;  Mr.  Wilson  as  a 
private  citizen  could  say  and  think  what  he  pleased; 
as  President  he  was  compelled  to  make  Mr.  Bryan 
Secretary  of  State.  As  Mr.  Bryan  knew  nothing 
of  history  and  less  of  European  politics  and  had  a 
superb  disdain  of  diplomacy — diplomacy  according 
to  the  tenets  of  Bryanism  being  an  unholy  and 
immoral  game  in  which  the  foreign  players  were 
always  trying  to  outmaneuver  the  virtuous  and 
innocent  American — he  was  provided  with  a  polit 
ical  nurse,  mentor,  and  guardian  in  the  person 
of  John  Bassett  Moore,  who  had  a  long  and  bril 
liant  career  as  an  international  lawyer  and  diplo 
matist.  Mr.  Bryan  busied  himself  with  finding 
soft  jobs  for  deserving  Democrats,  preaching  and 
inculcating  the  virtues  of  grape  juice  to  the 
diplomatic  corps,  and  concocting  plans  whereby 
the  sword  was  to  be  beaten  into  a  typewriter  and 
war  become  a  lost  art.  Meanwhile  Mr.  Moore 
was  doing  the  serious  work  of  the  Department. 

No  two  men  were  more  unlike  than  Mr.  Bryan 
and  Mr.  Moore;  Mr.  Bryan  a  bundle  of  loosely 
tied  emotions  to  whom  a  catchy  phrase  or  an  un- 

214 


ROBERT  LANSING 

sound  theory  is  more  precious  than  a  natural  law 
or  the  wisdom  of  the  philosopher;  Mr.  Moore  an 
intellect  who  has  subordinated  his  emotions,  and 
to  whom  facts  are  as  important  as  mathematics 
to  an  engineer.  It  was  an  incompatible  union;  it 
could  not  last.  Mr.  Moore  became  impatient  of 
his  chief's  vagaries  and,  about  a  year  later,  returned 
to  the  dignified  quiet  of  Columbia  University. 

This  was  early  in  1914.  Now  for  the  random 
way  in  which  chance  weaves  her  skein.  Mr.  Moore 
went  out  of  the  Department  and  left  the  office  of 
Counselor  vacant,  an  office,  up  to  that  time,  so 
little  known  that  the  public,  if  it  gave  the  matter 
any  thought,  believed  its  occupant  was  the  legal 
adviser  of  the  Department,  while,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  he  is  the  Under  Secretary,  which  is  now  the 
official  designation. 

At  this  stage  of  his  career  Mr.  Lansing  was  con 
nected  with  the  Department  as  an  adviser  on 
international  affairs  and  had  represented  the 
United  States  in  many  international  arbitrations. 
He  was  known  to  a  small  and  select  circle  of 
lawyers  specializing  in  international  law,  but  to 
the  public  his  name  meant  nothing.  He  had 
always  been  a  good  Democrat,  although  he  was 
married  to  the  daughter  of  the  late  John  W.  Foster, 

215 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

who  wound  up  a  long  and  brilliant  diplomatic 
life  as  Secretary  of  State  in  President  Harrison's 
Cabinet  after  Mr.  Elaine's  resignation. 

Mr.  Lansing  had  made  Washington  his  home 
for  many  years,  and  when  the  new  Democratic 
Administration  came  into  power  he  believed  his 
services  to  the  party  entitled  him  to  recognition, 
and  he  sought  the  appointment  of  Third  Assistant 
Secretary  of  State.  The  Third  Assistant  Secre 
tary  is  the  official  Social  Secretary  of  the  Govern 
ment.  When  royalty  or  other  distinguished  per 
sons  come  to  this  country  as  the  guests  of  the 
nation  the  Third  Assistant  Secretary  is  the  Master 
of  Ceremonies.  He  has  to  see  that  all  the  forms 
are  properly  complied  with  and  nothing  happens 
to  mar  the  visitors'  enjoyment;  he  sends  out  in 
vitations,  in  the  name  of  the  State  Department,  to 
the  funerals  of  Ambassadors  or  the  inauguration 
of  the  President.  But  for  some  reason  Mr. 
Lansing's  praiseworthy  ambition  was  defeated. 

Mr.  Moore  had  knowledge,  learning,  and  experi 
ence,  but  he  was  denied  the  gift  of  divination.  Had 
he  known  that  a  few  months  later  a  half  crazed 
youth  in  an  unheard  of  place  was  to  be  the  uncon 
scious  agent  to  set  the  whole  world  aflame,  un 
doubtedly  he  would  have  put  up  with  Mr.  Bryan's 

216 


ROBERT  LANSING 

curious  ideas  and  peculiar  methods  and  stuck  to 
his  desk  at  the  State  Department,  and  Mr.  Lan 
sing  would  never  have  been  heard  of.  But  at  the 
turning  point  in  Mr.  Moore's  career  his  luck 
deserted  him  and  Mr.  Lansing  became  the  benefi 
ciary.  Mr.  Lansing,  who  would  have  been  satisfied 
with  the  appointment  of  Third  Assistant  Secretary 
of  State,  a  minor  place  in  the  hierarchy,  was 
appointed  by  Mr.  Wilson  Counselor  of  the 
Department  of  State. 

The  appointment  created  no  excitement.  In 
March,  1914,  foreign  affairs  had  little  interest  for 
the  American  people.  There  was  Mexico,  of  course, 
and  Japan;  there  were  the  usual  routine  questions 
to  form  the  customary  work  of  the  department; 
but  the  skies  were  serene;  murder,  rape,  and  sud 
den  death  no  one  thought  of;  Lloyd's,  which  will 
gamble  on  anything  from  the  weather  to  an  ocean 
tragedy,  would  have  written  a  policy  at  a  ridicu 
lously  low  premium  on  the  maintenance  of  the 
peace  of  Europe;  any  statesman  rash  enough  to 
have  predicted  war  for  the  United  States  within 
three  years  would  have  aroused  the  concern  of  his 
friends  and  the  professional  solicitude  of  his  physi 
cian.  Apparently  Mr.  Lansing  had  tumbled  into 
an  easy  and  dignified  post  which  would  not  unduly 

217 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

tax  his  physical  or  mental  strength.  He  could 
congratulate  himself  upon  his  good  fortune. 

A  few  months  later  the  situation  changed.  The 
State  Department  became  not  only  the  center 
about  which  the  whole  machinery  of  the  Govern 
ment  revolved  but  on  it  was  focused  the  attention 
of  the  country  and  the  thoughts  of  Europe.  The 
Counselor  of  the  Department  was  lifted  out  of 
his  obscurity;  despatches  to  the  belligerents  signed 
"Lansing"  were  published  in  the  newspapers, 
statements  were  issued  by  him,  he  was  interviewed; 
he  received  Ambassadors,  and  when  an  Ambassa 
dor  visited  the  State  Department  the  nerve  centers 
of  the  whole  world  were  affected.  Again,  a  few 
months  later,  in  June,  1915,  Mr.  Bryan  kindly 
accommodated  Mr.  Wilson  by  knocking  himself 
into  a  cocked  hat,  and  Mr.  Lansing  was  ap 
pointed  Secretary  of  State.  Few  men  had  risen 
so  rapidly.  He  had  no  reason  to  complain  of  his 
luck. 

Mr.  Wilson  made  some  extraordinary  appoint 
ments — a  close  observer  has  said  he  could  read 
motives  but  not  men — and  his  appointment  of 
Mr.  Lansing  at  a  time  of  crisis  would  have  been 
inexplicable  were  it  not  logical  as  Mr.  Wilson 
reasoned.  Mr.  Wilson  did  not  invite  as  his  asso- 

218 


ROBERT  LANSING 

ciates  his  intellectual  equals  or  those  who  dared 
to  oppose  him;  it  was  necessary  that  the  State 
Department  should  have  a  titular  head,  but  Mr. 
Wilson  was  resolved  to  be  his  own  Secretary  of 
State  and  take  into  his  own  hands  the  control  of 
foreign  policy.  No  great  man,  no  man  great 
enough  to  be  Secretary  of  State  when  the  world 
was  in  upheaval,  would  have  consented  to  that  in 
dignity;  no  man  jealous  of  his  own  self-respect 
could  have  remained  Mr.  Wilson's  Secretary  of 
State  for  long.  A  Secretary  of  State  or  any  other 
member  of  the  Cabinet  must  of  course  subordinate 
his  judgment  to  that  of  the  President,  for  the 
President  is  the  final  court  of  appeal.  But  Mr. 
Wilson  went  further  than  that;  he  heaped  almost 
unparalleled  affront  upon  Mr.  Lansing;  he  made 
the  great  office  of  Secretary  of  State  ridiculous, 
and  he  invested  its  incumbent  with  no  greater 
authority  than  that  of  a  copyist. 

Perhaps  Mr.  Wilson  reads  men  better  than  his 
critics  believed;  perhaps  Mr.  Wilson  had  fully 
taken  the  measure  of  Mr.  Lansing  and  knew  how 
far  he  could  go. 

Nature  never  intended  Mr.  Lansing  to  be  a 
leader  of  men,  to  fight  for  a  great  cause,  or  to  en 
gage  in  physical  or  intellectual  combat.  His  life 

219 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

has  been  too  soft  for  that,  and  he  is  naturally 
indolent.  He  is  fond  of,  and  has  more  than  the 
amateur's  appreciation  for,  music,  painting,  poetry, 
and  the  classics  of  literature.  He  has  dabbled  in 
verse,  he  sketches  and  he  has  written,  but  without 
brilliancy.  Accident  made  him  a  lawyer,  but  he 
was  really  intended  to  be  an  artist ;  he  would  have 
produced  no  masterpiece,  for  genius  is  not  in  him, 
but  he  would  have  been  happy  in  his  work  and  per 
haps  have  given  inspiration  to  men  of  greater 
talent.  Without  being  a  fanatic  or  dogmatic,  he 
is  strongly  religious;  religion  to  him  has  a  meaning 
and  is  not  merely  a  convention ;  he  has  a  code  which 
he  has  always  observed  and  ideals  which  he  has 
preserved;  he  is  charitable  in  his  judgments  and 
has  never  allowed  his  prejudices  to  influence  his 
actions;  he  is,  to  use  a  word  so  often  misapplied, 
a  gentleman,  and  his  motto  is  Noblesse  oblige. 
Typical  of  the  standard  he  sets  for  himself  was  the 
admirable  restraint  he  showed  after  his  abrupt 
dismissal  from  the  Cabinet.  He  neither  sought 
vindication  through  the  newspapers,  nor  posed  as 
a  victim,  nor  soothed  his  feelings  by  denuncia 
tions  of  the  President ;  he  did  not  make  a  nuisance 
of  himself  by  inflicting  the  recital  of  his  grievances 
upon  his  friends  or  hinting  darkly  at  revelations. 

220 


ROBERT  LANSING 

He  kept  quiet  and  went  about  his  affairs  as  a 
gentleman  should. 

Why,  it  may  be  asked,  should  a  man  with  so 
many  fine  qualities  have  cut  such  a  sorry  figure? 
The  answer  perhaps  is  that  he  suffers  from  the 
defects  of  his  qualities,  fine  as  we  must  admit  them 
to  be;  too  fine,  perhaps,  for  a  coarser  world. 

When  a  weak  and  somewhat  easy-going  man, 
immensely  pleased  with  his  own  exalted  position, 
has  to  deal  with  a  man  of  iron  will,  ruthless  in  his 
methods,  he  is  necessarily  at  a  disadvantage. 
Considering  Mr.  Lansing's  temperamental  defects 
and  the  effect  of  his  training,  his  failure  is  no 
mystery. 

Until  Mr.  Lansing  became  Secretary  of  State  he 
had  never  known  responsibility.  Practically  his 
entire  life  had  been  spent  as  a  subordinate,  carry 
ing  out  with  zeal  and  intelligence  the  tasks  assigned 
to  him,  but  always  in  obedience  to  a  stronger 
mind.  Nothing  more  weakens  character  or  in 
tellect  than  for  a  man  habitually  to  turn  to  another 
for  direction  or  inspiration;  always  to  play  the  part 
of  an  inferior  to  a  mental  superior.  For  years 
Mr.  Lansing  had  been  connected  with  many  inter 
national  arbitrations  which,  theoretically,  was  a 
magnificent  training  for  a  future  Secretary  of 

221 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

State,  and  actually  would  have  destroyed  the 
creative  and  administrative  usefulness  of  a  much 
stronger  man  than  Robert  Lansing. 

In  the  whole  mummery  of  international  relations 
there  is  nothing  more  farcical  than  an  international 
arbitration.  It  is  always  preceded  by  great  popu 
lar  excitement.  A  ship  is  seized,  a  boundary  is 
run  a  few  degrees  north  or  south  of  the  conven 
tional  line,  something  else  equally  trivial  fires  the 
patriotic  heart.  The  flag  has  been  insulted,  the 
offending  nation  is  a  land  grabber,  national  honor 
must  be  vindicated.  Secretaries  of  State  write 
notes,  ambassadors  are  instructed,  the  press  be 
comes  rabid,  speeches  are  made ;  the  public  is  ad 
vised  to  remain  calm,  but  it  is  also  assured  there 
will  be  no  surrender.  After  a  few  weeks  the  public 
forgets  about  the  insult  or  the  way  in  which  it  has 
been  robbed;  but  the  responsible  officials  who  have 
never  allowed  themselves  to  become  excited,  con 
tinue  the  pleasing  pastime  of  writing  notes. 

Months,  sometimes  years,  drag  on,  then  a  new 
Secretary  of  State  or  a  Foreign  Minister,  to  clean 
the  slate,  proposes  that  the  childish  business  be 
ended  by  an  international  arbitration.  More 
weeks,  more  often  months,  are  spent  in  agreeing 
upon  the  terms  of  reference,  and  finally  the  dispute 

222 


ROBERT  LANSING 

goes  before  an  ' '  impartial  arbitral  tribunal."  Both 
sides  appoint  agents  and  secretaries,  an  imposing 
array  of  counsel,  technical  experts;  and  as  the 
counsel  are  always  well  paid  they  have  a  conscien 
tious  obligation  to  earn  their  fees. 

More  months  are  required  to  prepare  the  case, 
which  frequently  runs  into  many  printed  volumes; 
and  the  more  volumes  the  better  pleased  every 
body  is,  as  size  denotes  importance.  The  arbitra 
tors,  although  they  are  governed  by  principles  of 
law,  know  what  is  expected  of  them,  and  they 
rarely  disappoint.  Almost  invariably  their  de 
cision  is  a  compromise,  so  nicely  shaded  that  while 
neither  side  can  claim  victory  neither  side  suffers 
the  humiliation  of  defeat.  As  by  that  time  both 
nations  have  long  forgotten  the  original  cause  of 
the  quarrel  their  people  are  quite  content  when 
they  are  told  the  decision  is  in  their  favor.  As 
junior  counsel  Mr.  Lansing's  name  appears  in  many 
international  arbitrations,  and  it  was  precisely 
the  work  for  which  he  was  fitted. 

If  Mr.  Lansing  had  been  a  man  of  more  robust 
fiber,  he  would  have  returned  his  portfolio  to  Mr. 
Wilson  as  early  as  1916,  for  the  President  was  writ 
ing  notes  to  the  belligerents  and  did  not,  even  as 
a  perfunctory  courtesy,  consult  his  Secretary  of 

223 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

State;  he  made  it  only  too  patent  he  did  not  con 
sider  his  advice  worth  asking.  Mr.  Lansing  was 
too  fond  of  his  official  prominence  to  surrender  it 
easily,  and  that  is  another  curious  thing  about  the 
man.  Somewhat  vain,  holding  himself  in  much 
higher  estimation  than  the  world  did,  few  men  have 
so  thoroughly  enjoyed  office  as  he.  But  he  re 
mained  the  quiet  and  unassuming  gentleman  he 
had  always  been;  and  he  certainly  could  not  have 
deluded  himself  into  believing  that  there  was  a 
still  higher  office  for  him  to  occupy. 

Mr.  Lansing  could  not  screw  up  his  courage  to 
resign  in  1916.  The  following  year  the  United 
States  was  at  war  and  he  naturally  could  not 
desert  his  post;  but  in  1919  Mr.  Lansing  was  given 
another  opportunity,  and  still  he  was  obdurate. 
He  has  told  us  in  his  public  confession  that  he 
tried  to  persuade  the  President  not  to  go  to  Paris. 
Mr.  Wilson,  as  usual,  remained  unpersuaded,  and 
Mr.  Lansing  humbly  followed  in  his  train. 

Then,  of  course,  Mr.  Lansing  could  not  resign, 
but  in  Paris  he  was  even  more  grossly  humiliated; 
he  was  completely  shut  out  from  the  President's 
confidence;  he  wrote  letters  to  Mr.  Wilson  which 
the  President  did  not  deign  to  answer;  so  little  did 
Mr.  Lansing  know  what  was  being  done  that  he 

224 


ROBERT  LANSING 

sought  information  from  the  Chinese  Delegates! 
It  sounds  incredible,  it  seems  even  more  incredible 
that  a  Secretary  of  State  should  put  himself  in 
such  an  undignified  position,  and  having  done  so 
should  invite  the  world  to  share  his  ignominy.  But 
he  has  set  it  down  in  his  book  as  if  he  believed  it 
was  ample  defense,  instead  of  realizing  that  it  is 
condemnation. 

Curious  contradictions!  One  might  expect  a 
sensitive  man,  a  man  who  has  never  courted  pub 
licity,  who  has  none  of  the  genius  of  the  self -ad 
vertiser,  to  crave  forgetfulness  for  the  Paris 
episode,  to  shrink  from  publicly  exposing  himself 
and  his  humiliations,  but  Mr.  Lansing  seemingly 
revels  in  his  self -dissection.  The  President  slaps 
his  face;  in  his  pride  he  summons  all  the  world 
to  look  upon  the  marks  left  by  the  Executive  palm. 
He  feels  the  sting,  and  he  enters  upon  an  elabo 
rate  defense  to  show  it  is  the  stigmata  of  martyr 
dom.  A  treaty  was  framed  of  which  he  disap 
proved,  yet  he  could  sign  it  without  wrench  of 
conscience.  Unreconciled  to  resignation  in  Paris, 
he  returned  to  Washington  as  if  nothing  had 
happened,  again  to  resume  his  subservient  relations 
to  the  President. 

Opportunity,  we  are  told,  knocks  only  once  at  a 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

man's  door,  but  while  opportunity  thundered  at 
Mr.  Lansing's  portal  "his  ear  was  closed  with  the 
cotton  of  negligence/' 

Early  in  1920  Mr.  Wilson  dismissed  him, 
brutally,  abruptly,  with  the  petulance  of  an  invalid 
too  tired  to  be  fair;  for  a  reason  so  obviously  dis 
ingenuous  that  Mr.  Lansing  had  the  sympathy  of 
the  country.  He  should  either  have  told  the  truth 
then  and  there  or  forever  have  held  his  peace;  and 
had  he  remained  mute^out  of  the  mystery  would 
have  grown  a  myth.  The  fictitious  Lansing  would 
have  become  an  historical  character.  But  he 
must  needs  write  a  book.  It  does  not  make  pleas 
ant  reading.  It  does  not  make  its  author  a  hero. 

It  does,  however,  answer  the  question  the  curi 
ous  asked  at  the  time  of  his  appointment:  "Why 
did  the  President  make  Mr.  Lansing  Secretary  of 
State?" 


196 


Harris  and  Ewing 


BOIES    PCNROSE 


BOIES  PENROSE 

THE  most  striking  victim  of  the  American 
propensity  for  exaggeration  is  the  senior  Senator 
from  Pennsylvania,  Boies  Penrose.  He  has  a 
personality  and  contour  that  lend  themselves  to 
caricature.  Only  a  few  deft  strokes  are  needed  to 
make  his  ponderous  figure  and  heavy  jowl  the 
counterpart  of  a  typical  boss,  an  institution  for 
which  the  American  people  have  a  pardonable  affec 
tion  in  these  days  of  political  quackery.  For, 
when  the  worst  is  said  of  the  imposing  array  of 
bosses  from  Tweed  down  to  the  present  time,  they 
could  be  forgiven  much  because  they  were  what 
they  were.  That  is  why,  perhaps,  the  altogether 
fanciful  picture  of  Penrose,  propped  on  his  pillows 
with  his  telephone  at  his  bedside  directing  the 
embattled  delegates  at  Chicago,  who  in  sheer 
desperation  turned  to  Warren  G.  Harding,  is  dwelt 
upon  fondly  by  a  deluded  public. 

Penrose  does  not  despise  the  appurtenances  of 

229 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

bossism.  If  the  truth  were  told  he  probably  likes 
the  idea  of  being  represented  as  the  hard-fisted 
master  of  party  destinies.  He  knows  that  such  a 
reputation  inspires  awe  if  not  respect,  on  the  part 
of  the  rank  and  file,  from  the  humble  precinct 
worker  to  the  gentleman  of  large  affairs  who  pro 
vides  the  necessary  campaign  funds.  It  has  its 
value,  sentimental  as  well  as  practical,  for  the 
American  people  likes  to  set  up  its  own  political 
idols.  The  politicians  who  for  the  moment  guide 
the  destinies  of  the  nation  are  so  misdrawn,  so 
illuminated  with  virtues  and  endowed  with  vices 
quite  foreign  to  them,  that  they  frequently  achieve 
a  personality  quite  fictitious,  but  which,  none  the 
less,  passes  current  in  the  popular  mind  as 
genuine. 

Nothing  could  be  more  grotesque,  for  example, 
than  the  picture  of  Senator  Smoot,  who  is  merely 
a  sublimated  messenger  boy,  as  one  of  the  arbiters 
of  the  Republican  policies;  or  of  Senator  Lodge,  by 
sheer  strength  of  leadership,  restraining  the  dis 
cordant  Republican  elements  in  the  Senate  from 
kicking  over  the  traces.  This  is  journalist ' '  copy  " 
written  for  a  popular  imagination  which  finds  the 
truth  too  tepid. 

Boies  Penrose  serves  the  purpose  of  appeasing 

230 


BOIES  PENROSE 

national  appetite  for  what  the  magazine  editors 
call  "dynamic  stuff." 

But  the  real  Boies  Penrose  is  not  all  as  he  is 
pictured.  At  a  cursory  glance  he  might  appear 
to  be  a  physiological,  psychological,  and  political 
anachronism.  At  least  he  is  sufficiently  different 
from  his  colleagues  to  be,  if  not  actually  mysteri 
ous,  not  easily  understandable.  There  is  some 
thing  fundamental  about  him.  He  inspires  a 
certain  awe  which  may  not  be  magnetic  but  has 
the  same  effect  upon  those  who  surround  him; 
where  he  sits  is  the  head  of  the  table. 

I  doubt  if  Lodge  or  Knox  or  Hughes  could  ever 
fathom  the  secret  of  his  power;  they  are  not  cast 
in  the  same  mould.  His  colleagues  smile  at  his 
idiosyncracies — behind  his  back — but  they  ap 
proach  him  with  the  respect  due  to  a  master. 
Many  of  them  admire  him,  not  a  few  hate  him,  but 
all  of  them  fear  him.  It  is  rather  a  singular  thing 
that  Senator  La  Follette,  himself  at  the  pinnacle 
of  his  championship  of  the  Wisconsin  progressive 
idea,  was  probably  on  friendlier  terms  with  the 
senior  Senator  from  Pennsylvania  than  any  of  the 
other  leaders  of  those  reactionary  forces  with  whom 
he  was  tilting.  He  knew  where  Penrose  stood  and 
it  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  behind  the  Penrose 

231 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

reticence  there  was  a  modicum  of  admiration  for 
the  methods  of  the  redoubtable  little  colleague, 
who  in  his  way,  was  a  more  inexorable  boss  than 
Penrose  himself  ever  dreamed  of  being.  The 
mutual  understanding  was  there,  even  if  it  never 
became  articulate. 

Penrose  has  peculiarities  which  put  him  in  a 
niche  quite  his  own.  He  eschews  conversation  as 
an  idle  affectation.  He  dislikes  to  shake  hands, 
preferring  the  Chinese  fashion  of  holding  his  on  his 
own  expansive  paunch.  When  he  finds  it  nec 
essary  to  talk  at  all  he  speaks  the  precise  truth  as 
he  sees  it  without  consideration  for  the  feelings  of 
those  he  happens  to  be  addressing.  The  results 
are  frequently  so  ludicrous,  particularly  when  he 
enters  a  colloquy  on  the  Senate  floor,  that  he  is 
given  credit  for  a  much  more  pronounced  sense  of 
humor  than  he  actually  possesses.  I  doubt  that 
he  is  always  conscious  of  the  element  of  humor  and 
I  suspect  that  if  he  realized  that  his  observations 
were  to  evoke  laughter  he  would  deliberately 
choose  a  less  satirical  or  flippant  method  of 
expression. 

This  temperamental  characteristic  was  illus 
trated  by  an  episode  in  the  Senate  chamber  not 
long  ago.  Penrose,  entering,  found  his  chair  oc- 

232 


BOIES  PENROSE 

cupied  by  a  Democratic  colleague  who  had  over 
estimated  his  capacity  for  the  doubtful  stuff  that 
is  purveyed  in  these  days  of  Volsteadism  and  whose 
condition  was  apparent  to  everyone  on  the  floor 
and  in  the  galleries.  Penrose  is,  perhaps,  the  most 
widely  known  personage  in  the  Senate.  His  tower 
ing  figure  makes  him  conspicuous.  But  the  most 
of  the  myriads  of  trippers  who  visit  the  Capitol 
do  not  know  one  senator  from  another.  They 
rely  for  identification  upon  little  charts  showing 
the  arrangements  of  the  seats  on  the  floor  each  one 
of  which  is  labeled  with  a  senator's  name. 

Now  Penrose,  might  or  might  not  have  sus 
pected  that  these  trippers  following  their  charts, 
would  pick  out  the  snoring  recumbent  figure  as 
his  own.  He  decided  to  remove  all  possibility  of 
error  and  addressing  the  chair  with  usual  solemnity 
said,  "Mr.  President,  I  desire  the  chair  to  record 
the  fact  that  the  seat  of  the  senior  Senator  from 
Pennsylvania  has  not  been  occupied  by  himself 
at  the  present  session.  It  is  occupied  by  another." 
The  galleries  roared;  the  somnolent  Senator 
shambled  over  to  his  own  side  of  the  aisle  and 
Senator  Penrose  was  given  credit,  by  the  unwise, 
for  humor  quite  unintended. 

Life  with  Mr.  Penrose  is  a  much  more  serious 

233 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

business  than  most  people  imagine.  And  it  be 
came  even  more  serious  a  little  while  ago  when  ill 
ness  laid  hold  of  him  and  his  brother,  a  physician, 
prescribed  dietary  rules  restricting  the  freedom 
that  he  had  once  exercised  without  restraint. 
There  was  something  lion-like  in  the  gaunt  figure 
in  the  rolling  chair  which  he  occupied  when  he 
returned  to  the  Senate  from  his  sick  bed.  It  was 
amazing  that  he  recovered;  it  was  even  more  amaz 
ing  that  he  should  have  submitted  to  the  rigorous 
rules  laid  down  by  his  doctor,  even  if  that  doctor 
was  his  own  brother.  The  bated  breath  with 
which  Pennsylvania  politicians  awaited  bulletins 
from  his  bedside  was  a  striking  acknowledgment 
of  the  power  he  wields. 

The  evolution  of  Boies  Penrose  is  an  amusing 
commentary  upon  American  politics  in  more  ways 
than  one.  Three  years  after  he  was  graduated 
from  Harvard  College  he  was  elected  to  the  Penn 
sylvania  State  Legislature  on  a  reform  ticket.  His 
election  was  made  the  occasion  for  great  rejoicing 
on  the  part  of  the  good  people  of  Philadelphia. 
And  well  might  they  rejoice.  They  had  at  last 
driven  a  wedge  into  the  sinister  political  machine 
that  had  brought  the  city  of  brotherly  love  into 
disrepute  as  a  boss-ridden  municipality. 

234 


BOIES  PENROSE 

Their  young  leader  had  wealth,  which  has  its 
advantages,  and  social  position,  which  to  a  Phila- 
delphian  is  as  dear  as  life  itself.  Moreover  he  had 
ability  and  all  that  makes  for  success.  His  fame 
as  a  reform  leader  spread  throughout  the  land  and 
across  the  seas.  James  Bryce,  in  his  first  edition 
of  his  American  Commonwealth  cited  him  as  an 
example  of  the  sterling  type  of  young  Americans 
who  were  arousing  themselves  at  that  time  to 
rescue  the  municipal  and  state  governments  from 
the  grip  of  the  vicious  boss  system. 

In  the  subsequent  editions  of  the  American  Com- 
monwealth  you  will  find  no  reference  to  Mr.  Pen- 
rose.  Something  had  happened  to  him  and  to  the 
reform  movement.  Whether  he  was  struck  by  a 
bolt  from  the  heavens  or  a  bolt  from  Matthew 
Stanley  Quay  is  immaterial.  The  fact  is  that 
after  a  few  years'  residence  in  Harrisburg,  the 
seat  of  the  government  of  the  commonwealth  of 
Pennsylvania,  he  counseled  with  himself  and 
solemnly  decided  that  Providence  had  never 
selected  him  to  be  the  apostle  of  the  political 
millenium. 

Most  men  are  born  radicals  and  die  conserva 
tives.  The  development  is  gradual  and  represents 
the  result  of  years  of  experience.  But  Penrose 

235 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

repented  while  there  was  time  to  make  amends  for 
his  error.  He  sought  a  very  short  cut.  He  went 
directly  from  the  legislature  to  the  Republican 
organization  of  Philadelphia  and  stood  as  its  candi 
date  for  mayor.  But  his  late  friends,  the  re 
formers,  happened  to  be  in  the  ascendency  that 
year  and  he  was  defeated. 

The  story  told  of  him  at  that  time,  whether  true 
or  not,  that  he  announced  his  willingness  to  take 
as  his  bride  any  estimable  young  lady  the  organiza 
tion  might  select,  since  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
bachelor  was  given  by  his  henchmen  as  the  reason 
of  his  defeat,  is  typical  of  him.  The  "  organiza 
tion,*'  the  Republican  Party,  constitutes  his  po 
litical  creed  and  philosophy.  He  has  devoted  his 
life  to  it.  The  "party"  is  his  life,  his  religion,  his 
family,  his  hobby.  Down  in  his  soul  he  believes 
that  the  destiny  of  the  American  people  is  so 
inextricably  interwoven  with  its  fortunes  that  its 
destruction  would  be  nothing  less  than  national 
hari  kari. 

He  does  not  believe  that  the  Republican  Party 
is  perfect,  but  he  believes  that  it  is  as  perfect  as 
any  political  organization  is  ever  likely  to  be.  He 
has  no  illusions  concerning  the  men  it  chooses  for 
high  places.  He  is  never  disturbed  by  stories  of 

236 


BOIES  PENROSE 

political  corruption  or  graft  unless  they  are  serious 
enough  to  jeopardize  forthcoming  elections. 
Otherwise  they  are  merely  unpleasant  incidents 
that  arise  in  the  life  of  every  business  organization. 

If  he  were  supreme  he  would  not  tolerate  politi 
cal  corruption,  any  more  than  he  would  tolerate 
murder;  but  since  he  is  not  supreme  and  cannot 
dictate  to  all  men,  he  accepts  their  efforts  in  the 
interest  of  the  organization  even  though  their  hands 
may  be  slightly  soiled.  Like  the  wise  general  who 
raises  a  volunteer  army  he  is  not  meticulous  in  the 
choice  of  his  privates,  providing  they  are  capable  of 
performing  the  tasks  assigned  to  them.  No  seeker 
after  souls  ever  believed  the  end  justifies  the  means 
more  sincerely  than  Boies  Penrose  believes  his 
vote-seekers  are  justified  in  stretching  the  code  a 
bit  for  the  benefit  of  the  organization —  particularly 
if  it  is  actually  endangered. 

Just  as  he  believes  in  the  Republican  Party  he 
believes  in  a  high  tariff — the  higher  the  better. 
Prosperity  without  protection  is  inconceivable. 
During  a  Washington  career  of  more  than  twenty 
years  he  has  been  constantly  caricatured  as  the 
tool  of  the  interests — the  man  upon  whom  they 
could  rely  to  raise  the  tariff  wall  an  inch  or  two  for 
their  personal  benefit. 

237 


THE  MIRRORS  OP  WASHINGTON 

He  has  raised  it  whenever  he  has  had  the  oppor 
tunity  to  do  so,  but  not  for  the  reason  assigned. 
He  is  no  man's  tool.  The  suggestion  that  Boies 
Penrose  personally  has  ever  profited  financially 
through  politics  is  too  absurd  to  be  entertained  for 
a  moment.  Of  course,  he  expects  the  interests, 
whom  the  party  serves  with  tariff  protection,  to 
save  the  party  at  the  polls  and  they  usually  do  so. 
But  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  senior  Senator  from 
Pennsylvania  is  the  essence  of  sound  politics. 

Unbelievable  as  it  may  sound  in  these  days, 
Senator  Penrose  actually  thinks  that  most  men 
are  dependent  for  their  daily  bread  upon  the  suc 
cess  of  a  very  small  group  of  financiers,  magnates, 
or  whatever  you  care  to  call  the  great  leaders  of  the 
world  of  business. 

Years  of  experience  has  convinced  him  that 
the  human  race  is  composed,  for  the  most  part,  of 
hopelessly  improvident  people  and  that  a  great 
part  of  the  globe  would  be  depopulated  through 
starvation  and  disease  if  it  were  not  for  the  fore 
sight,  ability,  and  thrift  of  the  handful  of  leaders 
whom  Divine  Providence  has  provided.  He  looks 
upon  himself  as  one  of  the  instruments  of  Provi 
dence  and  he  sincerely  believes  that  the  policies 
which  he  has  supported  since  his  early  experience 

238 


BOIES  PEN  ROSE 

with  the  reformers  are  responsible  for  the  happi 
ness  and  prosperity  of  many  a  family.  He  would 
consider  it  the  height  of  absurdity  for  any  of  these 
poor,  worthy,  but  ignorant  people  to  expect  the 
comforts  which  they  have  enjoyed  without  the  pro 
tection  afforded  their  employers  by  the  Republican 
Party. 

By  this  somewhat  unpopular  method  of  reason 
ing,  he  believes  that  he  of  all  the  men  in  public  life 
has  made  the  most  persistent  and  consistent  fight 
for  the  masses.  It  is  undoubtedly  this  calm  faith 
and  sincere  belief  in  his  own  rectitude  which  has 
enabled  him  to  hold  the  tremendous  power  he  has 
exerted  since  Nelson  Aldrich  retired  from  the 
Senate. 

I  have  presented  his  political  philosophy  in  some 
detail  because  he  is  probably  the  most  misjudged 
man  in  Washington.  People  are  inclined  to  look 
upon  him  as  a  glorified  boss  who  deals  in  politics  as 
other  men  deal  in  commodities; — it  is  hardly  a  fair 
estimate  of  the  man.  He  considers  himself  the  x 
chosen  leader  of  the  most  intelligent  people  of  a  , 
great  commonwealth  who  is  rendering  tremen 
dous  service  to  the  country.  I  do  not  agree  with 
that  estimate  either.  But  taken  all  and  all  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  country  owes  him  a  debt  of 

239 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

gratitude  for  having  been  sincere  when  another 
course  would  have  been  more  profitable.  It  is  a 
relief  to  find  one  at  least  who  has  never  been  called 
a  hypocrite. 

Senator  Penrose  does  not  hate  Democrats;  he 
does  not  consider  them  important  enough  for  that; 
he  merely  despises  them.  They  are  to  his  mind  an 
inferior  class  of  human  beings  who  should  not  be 
intrusted  with  the  affairs  of  the  nation.  Reformers 
irritate  him.  They  are  either  self-seeking  hypo 
crites  or  deluded.  In  neither  case  has  he  the  time 
nor  inclination  to  listen  to  their  suggestions  or 
heed  their  maledictions. 

He  had  an  abiding  hatred  for  Theodore  Roose 
velt  when  he  was  in  the  White  House,  but  he  sup 
ported  him  loyally  so  long  as  he  was  the  leader  of 
the  Party.  When  Colonel  Roosevelt  bolted  the 
hatred  ran  the  last  gamut.  He  was  classed  as  an 
arch  criminal  for  having  smashed  the  organization. 

Penrose  is  an  enigma  to  those  who  know  him 
only  casually,  especially  those  who  view  life 
through  the  rose  glasses  of  culture.  They  marvel 
at  the  extent  to  which  he  has  been  able  to  dictate 
to  men  who  appear  to  be  his  superiors.  I  have 
heard  him  called  a  cave  man  by  some,  by  others  a 
boor ;  but  he  is  neither.  He  observes  the  amenities 

240 


BOIES  PENROSE 

of  life  so  far  as  they  are  necessary,  but  only  so  far. 
He  is  impatient  of  mediocrity ;  he  will  not  tolerate 
stupidity  and  he  loathes  hypocrisy.  I  would  not 
say  that  he  has  bad  manners;  he  has  none  at  all. 

Throughout  the  recent  eclipse  of  the  Republican 
Party,  which  began  with  the  Roosevelt  default,  no 
member  remained  more  steadfast  than  the  Penn 
sylvania,  leader.  He  accepted  the  inevitable  and 
bided  his  time  like  the  politicians  of  the  old  school 
of  which  he  is  one  of  the  few  conspicuous  surviving 
examples.  Expediency  does  not  enter  into  his 
make-up;  he  made  no  effort  to  keep  himself  in  the 
limelight,  for  he  is  by  the^  Party,  of  the  Party,  and 
for  the  Party, 

'  Now  that  the  Party  is  back  again,  in  power,  moie 
than  one  of  his  colleagues  suspect  that  Penrose, 
if  his  health  permits,  will  emerge  from  the  back 
ground  as  the  real  leader  of  the  Senate  majority. 
His  political  past  is  against  him.  But  he  knows 
men  and  his  tutelage  under  Aldrich  has  not  been 
forgotten. 


241 


Harris  and  Ewing 


WILLIAM    EDGAR    BORAH 


WILLIAM  E.   BORAH 

TAKEN  at  its  best,  life,  to  William  E.  Borah,  is 
little  more  than  a  troublesome  pilgrimage  to  the 
grave. 

This  does  not  mean  that  he  is  a  misanthrope  or  a 
seer  of  distorted  vision.  On  the  contrary  his  sym 
pathies  are  broad  and  he  has  an  'elusive  charm, 
more  apparent  in  the  early  years  of  his  political 
career  than  now.  But,  for  some  reason,  probably 
temperamental,  he  is  in  the  habit  of  dwelling  upon 
the  dangers  that  beset  the  republic — dangers  which 
are  sometimes  very  real.  Nevertheless  an  hour 
in  his  presence  is  more  often  than  not  depressing;  it 
leaves  one  with  a  sense  of  impending  calamity. 
There  are  few  bright  spots  on  his  horizon. 

It  is  not  altogether  to  his  discredit  that  his  more 
venerable  colleagues  look  upon  him  as  a  young 
man — he  is  fifty-six;  nor  does  it  imply  merely 
arrested  political  development.  For  all  of  his 
pessimism  he  maintains  a  certain  freshness,  if 

245 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

belligerency,  of  spirit  which  is  puzzling  not  only  to 
those  who  have  long  since  accustomed  themselves 
to  the  party  yoke  but  to  those  whom  experience 
has  taught  the  art  of  compromise.  For  Borah 
hates  the  discipline  that  organization  entails,  in 
spite  of  his  respect  for  organization,  and  he  dis 
likes  compromise  however  often  he  is  driven  to  it. 

This  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  he 
was  not  obliged  to  fight  his  way  laboriously  up 
ward  on  the  lower  rungs  of  politics — he  landed  in 
the  Senate  from  an  Idaho  law  office  in  one  pyro- 
technical  leap  when  he  was  only  forty  two — and  by 
the  fact  that  in  his  make-up  he  is  singularly  un 
political.  Disassociating  him  from  his  senatorial 
environment  it  is  much  easier  to  imagine  him  as  a 
devotee  of  academic  culture,  a  university  professor, 
a  moral  crusader,  even  a  poet,  than  as  a  politician. 

There  is  in  his  make-up  an  underlying  Celtic 
strain  which  may  account  for  his  moodiness,  his 
emotionalism,  and  his  impulsiveness.  These  char 
acteristics  are  constantly  cropping  up.  For  many 
years  he  has  buried  himself  in  a  somber  suite  of 
rooms  in  the  Senate  office  building  as  far  away 
from  his  colleagues  as  he  could  get.  There  he 
lives  in  an  atmosphere  of  academic  quiet.  There 
he  reads  and  studies  incessantly,  far  from  the  mad- 

246 


WILLIAM  E.  BORAH 

dening  crowd  of  politics.  This  detachment  has 
probably  bred  a  suspicion  that  marks  his  actions. 
He  has  no  intimates,  no  associates  who  call  him 
"Bill."  He  is  not  a  social  being.  He  is  rarely 
seen  where  men  and  women  congregate.  He  is 
virtually  unknown  in  that  strange  bedlam  com 
posed  largely  of  social  climbers  and  official  poseurs 
called  Washington  society.  He  neither  smokes, 
drinks,  nor  plays.  What  relaxation  he  gets  is  on 
the  back  of  a  western  nag  in  Rock  Creek  Park 
where  he  may  be  seen  any  morning  cantering  along 
— alone.  He  does  not  ride  for  pleasure ;  his  physi 
cian  ordered  it  and  it  is  a  very  businesslike  matter. 
If  he  experiences  any  of  the  exhilaration  that  comes 
to  men  in  the  saddle  he  contrives  to  conceal  it. 

On  the  floor  of  the  Senate  he  is  quite  a  different 
person.  There  his  unmistakable  genius  for  oratory 
is  given  full  sweep  and  when  he  speaks  his  col 
leagues  usually  listen,  not  because  they  agree  with 
what  he  says  but  because  they  are  charmed  by  the 
easy  and  melodious  flow  of  his  words.  There  is  a 
hint  of  Ingersoll  in  his  speeches  which  are  full  of 
alliteration  and  rhythmic  phrases.  He  has  a  sense 
of  form  sadly  lacking  in  his  stammering  and  in 
articulate  colleagues,  for  oratory  in  the  Senate  is 
probably  at  its  lowest  ebb.  But,  strangely  enough, 

247 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

it  is  only  occasionally  that  he  makes  a  lasting  im 
pression.  His  eloquence  ripples  like  water  and 
leaves  scarcely  more  trace. 

Mr.  Borah's  entire  political  career  has  been  char 
acterized  by  an  impulsiveness  which  has  given  him 
a  halo  of  popularity  but  has  never  enabled  him  to 
garner  the  fruits  of  plodding  labor.  At  one  time 
or  another  this  has  led  him  to  break  with  nearly 
every  faction  with  which  he  has  been  identified. 
The  "regular"  Republicans  have  felt  that  they 
never  could  rely  upon  him;  the  " progressive" 
element  has  found  him  inconstant  and  at  intervals 
he  has  threatened  to  pull  down  the  party  house  of 
the  Republicans  and  to  bring  destruction  to  one 
or  other  of  the  leaders  whom  he  dislikes. 

This  was  illustrated  by  an  observation  he  made 
to  me  one  spring  morning  in  1919  when  the  Re 
publican  attitude  toward  the  League  of  Nations 
was  still  in  the  formative  process.  Borah  was 
"convinced"  that  Elihu  Root  and  Will  H.  Hays 
were  conspiring  to  induce  the  Republicans  to 
accept  the  League  and  he  said,  quite  seriously, 
that  he  had  about  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
would  be  necessary  to  wreck  the  Republican  Party 
to  save  the  country.  Root,  he  told  me,  was  pro- 
British  to  the  last  degree  and  Hays,  be  said,  was 

248 


WILLIAM  E.  BORAH 

cajoled  by  the  great  international  bankers  who 
trembled  at  the  delay  of  peace. 

''If  such  men  are  to  lead  the  Republican  Party," 
he  declared,  "the  sooner  it  is  destroyed  the  better." 

Of  course,  he  did  not  take  the  stump.  He  has 
failed  so  often  to  carry  out  his  threats  of  rebellion 
that  they  no  longer  inspire  the  fear  they  once  did. 
Although  he  has  repeatedly  turned  against  the 
organization  he  has  managed  to  escape  being  an 
outlaw.  This  singular  trait  of  political  conserva 
tism  came  conspicuously  into  play  in  1912  when 
Roosevelt  turned  upon  the  machine.  All  through 
the  stormy  days  of  that  stormy  Chicago  conven 
tion  Senator  Borah  could  be  found  at  the  side  of 
that  one  leader  for  whom  he  had  a  consistent 
regard.  He  was  with  him  up  to  the  very  last 
moment  before  the  die  was  cast.  He  was  almost 
successful  at  the  eleventh  hour  in  inducing  Mr. 
Roosevelt  to  abandon  his  mad  project.  They 
were  closeted  together  on  the  evening  of  the 
clamorous  meeting  of  the  progressives  in  a  hotel 
across  the  street. 

4 'We  have  come  to  the  parting  of  the  ways, 
Colonel,"  Borah  said  to  his  chief.  "This  far  I 
have  gone  with  you.  I  can  go  no  further."  He 
urged  Roosevelt  not  to  take  the  step  which  would 

249 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

mean  the  disruption  of  the  party  and  defeat. 
Roosevelt  wavered.  But  before  he  could  reach 
the  decision  Borah  sought,  a  committee  from  the 
outlaw  meeting^  burst  into  the  room,  and  enthusi 
astically  announced  that  the  stage  was  set  for  the 
demonstration  that  was  to  mark  a  new  political 
era. 

Roosevelt,  hat  in  hand,  turned  to  Borah  and 
said,  "You  see,  I  can't  desert  my  friends  now." 
The  ex-President  went  his  way  and  Borah  came 
back  to  the  old  Republican  fold. 

From  that  time  to  this  he  has  followed  his  own 
way  which,  fortunately  for  the  Republican  Party, 
has  been  within  organization  limits,  but  his  rela 
tions  with  his  fellows  are  neither  intimate  nor 
serene.  Some  of  the  Republicans,  who  can  be 
forgiven  for  not  understanding  a  man  who  re- 
respects  neither  party  decrees  nor  traditions,  feel 
that  Borah  is  so  American  that  he  possesses  one 
of  the  characteristics  of  the  aboriginal  Indian — in 
other  words,  that  he  is  cunning,  that  he  will  not 
play  the  game  according  to  organization  rules.  He 
has  a  habit  of  making  too  many  mental  reserva 
tions.  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  these  allegations 
could  be  supported  before  an  impartial  tribunal. 
I  am  rather  inclined  to  the  belief  that  to  maintain 

250 


WILLIAM  E.  BORAH 

his  position  in  the  Senate  Borah  has  had  to  become 
a  shrewd  trader. 

Fortunately  for  himself  he  is  too  much  of  a  per 
sonage  to  be  ignored  or  suppressed,  and  manages 
to  be  a  power  in  a  party  which  has  no  love  for  him. 

He  is  virtually  a  party  to  himself.  He  cannot 
be  controlled  by  the  ordinary  political  methods. 
His  constituency  is  small  and  evidently  devoted  to 
him  and  his  state  is  remote ;  he  is  not  compelled  to 
do  the  irksome  political  chores  that  cost  Senators 
their  political  independence.  However  doubtful 
he  might  be  as  a  positive  asset  his  dexterity  and 
power  of  expression  are  such  that  he  would  be  very 
dangerous  as  a  liability.  A  report  that  Borah  is 
on  the  rampage  affects  Republican  leaders  very 
much  as  a  run  on  a  bank  affects  financial  leaders. 
They  are  not  quite  sure  when  either  is  going  to 
stop.  Borah  knows  that  most  of  the  men  with 
whom  he  is  dealing  are  clay  and  estimates  with 
uncanny  accuracy  the  degree  to  which  he  can 
compel  them  to  meet  his  demands. 

This  method  has  not  always  been  successful. 
It  was  singularly  unsuccessful  in  the  case  of  Sena 
tor  Penrose.  Borah  is  the  antithesis  of  Penrose, 
whom  he  dislikes  intensely.  Several  years  ago  he 
interpreted  a  remark  made  by  the  Senator  from 

251 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

Pennsylvania  to  another  Senator  as  a  thrust  at  his 
own  political  ethics,  or  lack  of  them.  It  was  a 
petty  affair  at  most  and  Penrose  never  admitted 
the  accuracy  of  Borah's  construction,  but  Borah 
has  had  nothing  to  do  with  him  since.  When  the 
present  Congress  was  in  process  of  organization 
Borah  announced  that  he  would  bolt  the  party 
caucus  if  Penrose  were  slated  for  the  chairmanship 
of  the  Finance  Committee  to  which  he  was  en 
titled  according  to  the  rule  of  seniority.  It  was  a 
ticklish  situation.  The  Republicans  had  a  bare 
majority  in  the  Senate  and  if  any  of  them  deserted 
the  organization  it  might  mean  Democratic  con 
trol.  The  leaders  were  disturbed  and  tried  to 
mollify  the  defiant  Senator  from  Idaho  with  every 
means  at  hand  even  giving  assurance  that  the 
Senator  from  Pennsylvania  would  vote  against  the 
Peace  Treaty  and  the  League  of  Nations  which  was 
supposed  to  represent  his  vital  interest  at  that  time. 
He  refused  to  compromise  and  announced  that 
Penrose  must  go.  He  was  offered  every  committee 
assignment  that  he  or  his  friends  wanted,  and 
accepted  them,  but  as  a  matter  of  right. 

Penrose  was  determined  not  to  be  displaced  to 
satisfy  what  he  regarded  as  a  colleague's  whim. 
He  sat  silent  in  his  office  receiving  reports  from 

252 


WILLIAM  E.  BORAH 

hour  to  hour  on  Borah's  state  of  mind.  On  the 
day  before  the  caucus  Borah  whispered  that  he 
intended  to  make  charges  against  the  Pennsyl 
vania  leader  that  would  provide  a  sensation  re 
gardless  of  any  effect  they  might  have  upon  the 
party  or  the  country.  The  report  was  brought  to 
Penrose.  Instead  of  trembling  he  sent  word  to 
Borah  that  he  might  say  what  he  pleased  concern 
ing  his  political  career  but  that  if  he  made  any 
personal  charges  he  would  regret  them  to  his  dying 
day.  Borah  appeared  to  understand.  He  did 
not  even  attend  the  caucus  and  Penrose  was  duly 
elected.  Whether  he  was  trading  fcr  committee 
assignments  or  initiated  the  fight  on  political 
grounds  is  a  question  he  alone  can  answer,  if 
anyone  should  have  the  temerity  to  ask  it. 

The  same  violence  of  his  likes  and  dislikes  is 
shown  in  his  attitude  toward  the  British  and  his 
espousal  of  the  Irish  cause.  At  the  time  of  the 
visit  of  the  British  mission  to  Washington,  Vice- 
President  Marshall  designated  Senator  Borah  a 
member  of  the  committee  appointed  to  escort  the 
British  visitors  into  the  chamber.  This  Borah 
resented  as  a  personal  affront. 

4 'Marshall  has  a  distorted  sense  of  humor/'  he 
said.  "He  knows  I  dislike  the  British  and  that  I 

253 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

despise  the  hypocrite  Balfour."  This  feeling  was 
probably  due  in  large  measure  to  the  Irish  lineage 
which  Borah  can  trace  in  his  ancestry  as  well  as  a 
temperamental  dislike  of  the  British  methods  of 
maintaining  control  over  subject  peoples. 

It  is  difficult  to  label  Senator  Borah  from  a  poli 
tical  standpoint.  His  most  striking  characteristic 
is  his  inconsistency.  For  a  long  time  in  the  early 
days  of  the  progressive  movement  he  displayed  a 
marked  inclination  to  be  "  irregular  "  and  he  is  to  be 
found  voting  for  most  measures  for  which  the  "pro 
gressives"  claimed  sponsorship,  but  when  the  more 
radical  leaders  began  to  advocate  the  recall  of 
the  judiciary,  Borah  rose  up  and  delivered  an 
invective  the  memory  of  which  lingers  in  the 
Capitol.  It  was  one  of  the  few  speeches  he  has 
made  that  had  a  permanent  effect  and,  strangely 
enough,  it  was  the  kind  of  speech  that  might  have 
well  been  delivered  by  Root  or  Knox. 

There  has  always  been  reason  to  believe  that 
Borah  was  never  more  enamored  of  La  Follette 
in  his  prime,  or  of  Hiram  Johnson,  than  he  has  been 
of  the  "reactionary"  leaders  with  whom  he  has 
been  oftentimes  in  open  conflict.  When  the  latter 
deluded  himself  with  the  hope  of  securing  the  Re 
publican  nomination,  Borah  was  supposed  to  be 

254 


WILLIAM  E.  BORAH 

his  chief  supporter.  When  Johnson  had  elimi 
nated  Lowden  and  Wood,  and  seemed  to  have 
eliminated  Harding,  Borah  showed  more  interest 
in  the  Knox  candidacy.  He  wanted  Knox  at  the 
head  of  the  ticket  mainly  because  he  knew  that 
Knox  was  an  implacable  foe  of  the  League  of 
Nations.  On  that  fateful  Friday  night  in  Chicago 
when  the  signs  of  the  trend  toward  Harding  had 
begun  to  appear,  the  Senator  from  Idaho  was 
anxious  and  prepared  to  place  Knox's  name  in 
nomination  and  begged  Johnson  to  swing  his 
delegates  in  that  direction. 

Borah  has  succeeded  very  well  in  concealing  his 
own  ambitions,  possibly  because  he  is  more  cautious 
than  some  of  his  impetuous  colleagues,  or  because 
the  opportunity  has  never  come  for  an  avowal. 
But  among  those  who  have  followed  his  career 
there  is  a  very  strong  suspicion  that  his  one  great 
desire  was  to  be  the  successor  of  Roosevelt.  This 
might  be  one  reason  for  his  antagonism  toward  the 
politicians  of  the  old  regime,  such  as  Penrose,  who 
have  barred  his  way  in  that  direction,  and  his  fitful 
devotion  to  progressivism  championed  by  others. 
The  failure  to  realize  this  ambition  might  account 
in  some  measure  for  his  later  reticence  and  his 
suspicion  of  politicians  in  general.  He  has  shown 

255 


THE  MIRRORS  OF  WASHINGTON 

a  pronounced  distrust  of  them.  The  only  ex 
ception  has  been  the  audacious  Ambassador  to  the 
Court  of  Saint  James  who  in  his  Review  and  in  his 
Weekly  flattered  the  Senator  from  Idaho  with  an 
absence  of  restraint  that  might  have  made  a  more 
trusting  person  skeptical. 

The  Senator  from  Idaho  has  too  many  years 
before  him  to  justify  predictions  concerning  his 
career.  Whatever  faults  he  might  have  they  do 
not  entirely  obscure  his  virtues.  It  is  possible 
that  the  occasion  might  arise  for  him  to  serve  as 
the  spokesman  of  a  popular  cause,  which  he  would 
do  with  undoubted  earnestness  and  eloquence,  in 
which  event  he  might  still  become  a  dominating 
figure  in  American  politics. 


256 


A  Selection  from  the 
Catalogue  of 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


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